Coronavirus mask shipment could allow elective surgery to return
The Federal Government has secured a shipment of masks ahead of schedule, potentially paving the way for non-essential elective surgery to restart.
NSW
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A new shipment of 100 million masks is expected to help convince the National Cabinet to ease the ban on elective surgery, including IVF treatments.
The Sunday Telegraph can reveal Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s Government has secured an extra 100 million masks earlier than expected, potentially paving the way for non-essential elective surgery to restart ahead of schedule.
Health Minister Greg Hunt said the shipment was due before the end of May and was considered an “important prerequisite” before on-essential elective surgeries can restart.
“It’s not only important for coronavirus but it will make it easier for elective surgery to resume,” Mr Hunt said.
Currently, all non-urgent elective surgeries have been cancelled in order to save personal protective equipment (PPE) such as masks, for healthcare workers on the frontline of the coronavirus outbreak.
Some IVF patients had their treatments suspended when the pause on surgeries was announced. Mr Hunt said IVF was “at the top of his list” when it came to restarting elective procedures. The National Cabinet will consider bringing back elective surgery when it meets on Tuesday.
It comes as the Morrison Government last night confirmed it has received 58 million protective face masks since the outbreak began, helping to provide protection for frontline health workers at risk of COVID-19.
The masks arrived ahead of their scheduled delivery date at the end of April allowing an extra 11 million masks to be released from the National Medical Stockpile starting this week.
Around seven million masks will go to hospitals with an extra 1.5 million to be released to GP clinics and 1.7 million for aged care homes. Mr Hunt said its key to have enough masks on hand before any restrictions are eased.
“Ensuring our dedicated frontline health and aged care workers have access to masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) is a Government priority,” he said.
DOCTORS QUESTION STANDARD OF PPE AMID PANDEMIC
The masks meant to protect our frontline medical staff have been designed for “big, burly men” and don’t properly protect female and Asian staff, doctors have warned.
The concern comes off the back of a recent incident at St Vincent’s Hospital that saw an intensive care doctor and two nurses sent into 14 days’ quarantine after their face masks were “inadvertently mispositioned” while treating a COVID-19 patient.
With 130 health workers in NSW already having contracted the virus, it raises fears more will become infected due to inadequate protection.
As reported in The Australian, the ICU nurse representative on the hospital’s COVID-19 committee, Gabrielle McLoughlin, sent an email titled: “Incorrect PPE supplied to ICU”.
“It has come to my attention the masks supplied to ICU are not fit for aerosol generating procedures (AGPS) … the P2 mask 8210 is rated only for dry airborne situations and not AGPS,” Ms McLoughlin wrote. “As per NSW Health’s own statement that no healthcare worker should be -expected to deliver care without the correct PPE, we will need this situation to be remedied ASAP.”
Emergency specialist Dr Bi Mian, who has been forced to import his own masks due to the inadequate stock provided in Australia, said the mask in question, the P2 mask 8210, is “not Therapeutic Goods Administration-approved as a surgical mask and is not rated for fluid resistance nor bacterial filtration.
“To be considered a surgical mask, it needs to meet at least the requirement for greater than 95 per cent bacterial filtration efficiency and be fluid resistant,” he said.
P2 masks also need to be fit-tested to each person to work properly but Australian Medical Association president Dr Kean Seng Lim said there were not enough masks to properly fit-test because such tests wasted a mask.
“For P2 and N95 masks to work properly, they do need to be fitted and one of the problems with fit testing is you need spare masks,” Dr Lim said.
“Some hospitals have reported they do not have enough masks to properly fit test so it is quite possible that health care workers do not have access to adequately fitted masks.”
Dr Mian also said the one-size-fits all approach leaves many female health workers at risk because the masks had been designed for the male workforce.
“These masks are built for industry full of big burly men with big faces,” he said.
“The cupped P2 masks are also notoriously difficult to fit as they are all one-size fits all type and historically most of these mining/construction/petroleum jobs were held by large-sized males with a certain kind of face structure.
“In health care, where the majority of the staff are female, those cups don’t fit properly, because they were not designed for female faces.
“They don’t fit my face, and I’m a skinny Asian person. I’d rather use my own stock.”
“It is not good enough if people get infected and for sure we will get infections. Our health care worker infection rate is higher than 5 per cent of all infections,” Dr Mian said.
A spokeswoman for the federal Health Department said the Australian standard for respiratory protective devices like the P2 respirators “are tested to ensure the wearer is protected”.
Advice from infectious diseases experts from the Communicable Disease Network of Australia includes recommendations for P2/N95 respirators during aerosol generating situations with patients who have diagnosed COVID-19 infection.
“The CDNA recommend that a mask of the 8210 type can be used by healthcare workers in conjunction with a face shield or goggles with these patients.
“TGA is working with manufacturers of these products to ensure they are appropriately included in the ARTG, given their emerging use in healthcare settings.”
NSW Health maintained the National Medical Stockpile meets the Australian Standards and “while 3M 8210 N95 masks are specifically noted for use in
dry, airborne procedures only, in the instance of COVID-19 and procedures where
fluid resistance is required, another layer, such as a face shield is recommended to
provide the fluid resistant barrier.”
THIS PROVES THAT GRINNERS ARE WINNERS
An Australian Olympian has come up with a way to help slow the spread of coronavirus and end the abuse of healthcare workers and police during the lockdown — by making smiling contagious.
While millions of people in the rest of the world have embraced the wearing of face masks in public, Australians have been slow on the uptake, with the few people who are taking proper protection becoming targets of abuse.
The state government has introduced on-the-spot fines to protect nurses and other healthcare workers after reports they were being spat at, yelled at and refused service at grocery stores and petrol stations.
Now former Australian Olympic water polo star Tyler Martin has come with a fashionable idea to help remove the stigma of wearing masks in public.
So he’s switched his regular day job of making swimwear to mass manufacturing face masks with a twist.
Instead of making standard surgical masks, Delfina has started manufacturing reusable masks with customised designs, including smiley faces.
“This is primarily a health benefit, so what we’re trying to do is stop people from being embarrassed about wearing them,” Martin told The Sunday Telegraph.
“Initially, everyone was told they don’t need masks because there was a global shortage and they didn’t want the punters scrambling for masks when doctors and healthcare workers needed them but the message now is they can help everyone.
“It’s not far fetched to believe that in the next 6-12 months people are going to be needing to wear personal protective equipment so, if that’s going to be the case, we want to create customised, reusable and washable masks that people feel good about wearing.”
Tyler, who played more than 100 Tests for Australia and competed at the 2016 Rio Olympics, said he’s already taken orders for 25,000 masks, and, while the smiley faces have been the most popular design so far, there’s also a high demand for customised logos.
“We’ve had health care suppliers, small businesses, police, public hospitals, sports teams, basically everyone from the punter on the street,” he said.
“The demand has been quite spread, from workforces wanting a corporate look, sporting teams wanting their own logos or the Australian flag, airlines wanting the smiley faces and doctors and nurses wanting to wear them while going to and from work.”
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