Coronavirus: ICU doctor and two nurses put in home isolation

A Sydney intensive care doctor and two nurses are in 14-day quarantine after a highly risky procedure with a COVID-19 patient.

The main entrance of St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney’s Darlinghurst. Picture: Christian Gilles

An intensive care doctor and two nurses at Sydney’s St Vincent’s Hospital have been placed into 14 days’ quarantine over claims they had “inadvertently mispositioned” the face shields they were wearing during a highly risky procedure with a COVID-19 patient.

St Vincent’s Hospital issued a statement on Monday night saying the three staff had been placed in home isolation as an “extra precaution” after an investigation into an incident in which the three staff had been involved in repositioning the infected patient’s airway tube on Friday.

Hospital staffers told The Australian the decision to order three ICU health workers into home quarantine left many of the hospital’s ICU staff deeply rattled and “in shock”.

The incident has raised concerns the hospital’s ICU staff — who are the most at risk from infection from patients — are still not properly trained about how to fit life-saving PPE equipment.

It also reignited suspicions among some staff about whether a new batch of P2 respirator masks supplied to the hospital’s ICU and cardiac ward several weeks were fit for purpose to protect them from COVID-19 infection.

The ICU nurse representative on the hospital’s COVID-19 committee, Gabrielle McLoughlin, sent an urgent email to the committee on Saturday, entitled “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.”

One St Vincent’s ICU staffer, who did not want to be identified, told The Australian several ICU staff had raised concerns about the new masks when they were first delivered from the commonwealth’s national medical stockpile, but had been assured they would provide full protection.

She said at least two health workers who had been involved in the face shield incident on Friday had returned to work on Saturday, and had not been told to go into quarantine until Sunday.

As with all other staff who worked at ICU on Saturday, they had seen a photocopy of Ms McLoughlin’s email, but staff were not notified their fellow workers could be ­infected.

“Not one person in the unit, day or night shift, were told about the f..k-up,” she said. “This has been spinning us all out.

“What about the patients we have been treating? We could be super-spreaders.”

St Vincent’s Hospital says it has assured staff in ICU that the P2 masks they are using are fit for purpose and have been provided from the commonwealth’s ­national medical stockpile.

“No other staff or patients have been exposed as a result of this ­incident,” the statement read.

“St Vincent’s has adequate stock of the appropriate PPE for this ­procedure.”

A hospital spokesman said health workers had been under­going extensive additional PPE training as part of its pandemic ­response and ongoing training would be provided.