Surgeons still aren’t getting the PPE or tests needed

The Royal College of Surgeons of England is urging the Prime Minister not to soften lockdown criteria as the fourth tests for lifting lockdown isn’t being met.

The college’s second ‘COVID survey of surgeons’ shows that the government’s fourth test for lifting lockdown isn’t yet being met, because surgeons aren’t yet getting the PPE or tests that they require.

The survey of 1,263 surgeons and surgical trainees found that PPE shortages persist for roughly a third of surgeons. In fact, 32.8 per cent of respondents do not believe there is an adequate supply of PPE in their workplace; 34.1 per cent of respondents said there had been shortages of full, long-sleeved, fluid repellent surgical gowns, or fluid repellent coveralls, over the last two weeks; 30.5 per cent said there had been shortages of FFP2 or FFP3 respirator masks; and 28.8 per cent highlighted shortages of full face visors.

Regarding testing, 82.4 per cent of surgeons and surgical trainees saying tests were being reserved for staff with symptoms - just 7.5 per cent said there was testing for asymptomatic staff in their workplace.

Neil Mortensen, RCS president-elect, said: “Just because the NHS has not been overwhelmed so far, it does not mean the government can use the health service as its economic punch-bag.  It has been a close run thing, and to use Boris Johnson's own words, ‘we have begun to wrestle it to the floor’, but the virus is certainly not yet defeated. Softening the fifth test to allow relaxation provided the NHS is not ‘overwhelmed’, is based on a flawed premise.

“The NHS has done a tremendous job of redirecting staff and resources to manage the first wave of coronavirus, but this involved postponing thousands of much-needed operations. Having seen off the immediate threat, we must now get back to helping all those patients waiting for essential operations like heart and brain surgery. The NHS cannot continue to be just a COVID-service, it’s so much more than that.

“Our survey shows the government’s fourth test for lifting lockdown has not yet been met.  Surgeons still lack PPE, and we need to be sure that the welcome recent announcements to extend testing mean all hospital workers can get tested quickly, whether or not they are symptomatic.  Having so recently experienced first-hand the support of the NHS, I hope the Prime Minister will not listen to those urging relaxation of the government’s position, on the flawed premise that the NHS ‘can cope’.”