If you are a nurse and working with covid positive patients do you have full PPE?

[Whatevah]

I am working in theatre/ICU area so we have full PPE with covid positive patients. But I was horrified to learn that the nurses on the wards caring for covid positive patients do not have full PPE. They only have the basics of paper mask, apron and gloves.
This has horrified me, I feel so guilty. I think they are even more at risk, as ventilated patients are in a very controlled environment. All the masks and care they give must be a higher risk. Its awful!
Is anyone else expected to work with known covid positive patients without full PPE?

That's the case in my hospital. ITU gets the full gown / FFP3 etc but all the covid wards have normal uniform, plastic apron, surgical mask and visor. Our trust say that's what PHE says is ok because ITU is surrounded by AGP patients due to the ventilation etc.

Whereas ward patients aren't I should have said. I'm not sure what the difference between AGP - sputum / cough inducing and the patients just coughing is - surely the risk is the same but doesn't seem to translate into PPE.

My colleagues who have looked after them have got the correct equipment. And we have plenty of it apparently.

I'm on a Covid-19 ward and we have aprons, gloves, surgical masks and visors.

Aprons, gloves & paper masks. Elderly care ward with some (but not all) Covid positive patients.

I think the tricky thing is the 'correct' equipment according to PHE isn't necessarily what people would class as correct!

I've been redeployed to a general covid ward: PPE is surgical mask (same one all shift), eye protection, apron, gloves. It's in line with Public Health England guidelines

I'm on a covid ward

We have surgical masks, gowns, gloves and visors

Ffp3 for dealing with anyone on cpap

This is in line with PHE guidance

A lot of our patients are wearing a surgical mask too if they can tolerate it

PHE have changed the guideline three times already and I feel it's more to do with stock availability than safety. The first set of guidelines we were wearing ffp3 masks.

Friend’s daughter is a nurse on respiratory ward now full of covid patients and the rules are the same as Bambinis. Basic surgical masks and aprons. They do have a supply of better PPE but are discouraged from wearing it as PHE say it’s not required. She says they want proper protection, when they wear the better stuff they get told they’re wasting it - I think this is where Matt Hancock’s misuse of PPE stems from, people wanting proper protection.

I'm a dr not a nurse but as said above on the covid wards, I'm not entitled to PPE unless it's for an aerosol generation procedure, so no I don't have any. I've been coughed at directly in the face and I'm still not entitled to anything.

I have no faith in public health England whatsoever and I hold them responsible for their dreadful guidelines condemning nhs staff to their deaths.

Same surgical mask all shift??? Aren't some only effective for 15 minutes?? (Depending on what the ward can get hold of...)

Midwife here. Delivering babies to covid positive women. Surgical mask, apron, gloves. Eye protection for splash risk procedures only (but there isn’t enough so we have to share...) Oh and apparently using entonox isn’t an agp so no ffp3 for me 🙄

I was pissed off to see the staff in M&S and the Spar in visors, I don’t begrudge them but the ward nurses don’t have them.

OMG I'm shocked at how little protection you are getting.
I'm not frontline, but in a nursing home, and just pray no one gets Covid 19 here. But we have as much protection as you already, aprons, gloves and maskes, plus some of the eye/face shields if needed.

The govt downgraded the status of the virus at least once recently to allow the use of less safe PPE

Also i can't get hold of a visor anywhere. We don't have them on the wards and I've tried buying them online and they're sold out ...

The government didn't- public health England did.

There are lots of local initiatives for visors so it may be that's where shop workers are getting them from - don't meet requirements for health workers because all rather cobbled together. Several I know about with 3d printers or designs based on scrap materials. If you're short on the wards, do look at what's happening locally as I'm sure lots of people would help you out.

Yes 2 paper masks to last all (12 hour) shift looking after covid positive and covid negative patients on the same 'non-covid' ward. Not me but people I know in the uk. It's in line with official recommendations 😒

I work in A&E and we've got different PPE depending on whether we are working.

Resus - AGP area, so gown, gloves, apron, visor/goggles and FFP3 mask

Covid majors - Type IIR fluid resistant surgical mask (the tie ones seem to be better quality than the ear loop ones we were issued and so people tend to wear those), eye protection glasses, apron and gloves

Non covid majors - We've pretty much assumed that some of the non covid patients have got covid and so staff are wearing the same PPE as above now.

Patients are all wearing surgical masks if they can.

Interesting and worrying responses.
I agree that the guidelines change so often and wonder if it’s due to supply?

I know I shouldn't say this because "hindsight is a wonderful thing" and all that but this is what happens when a country loses its manufacturing base and now has to go begging, like the rest of the world at the moment, for this equipment.

We once had a great textile industry in this country. We once made this type of medical textile too, spun it, wove it and sewed it, but people wanted the latest cheap fashions and so our industry couldnt keep up. It is not about money now though. It's about supply and every other country wants that supply. This why there is a shortage

I'm a community nurse we have gloves and aprons and one mask for all day. But we get a pack off 5, only allowed one or two a day, which we have to sign out off the office

Only full PPE (full length gown, FFP3 mask, goggles) for aerosol-generating procedures (what constitutes an aerosol generating procedure regularly changes), otherwise just apron, gloves and surgical mask. I am not fit-tested for FFP3 mask yet, but have done AGPs on suspected patients who were awaiting test results because we can't just not treat the patients. We are wearing a surgical mask all day with all patients whether covid or not, we can take it half off to drink then put it back on but told to minimise how often we do that (remember a couple of weeks ago when everyone was told not to wear surgical masks because they were only effective for 15mins...).