‘People are exhausted’: Nurses escalate PPE mask demands amid infection fears
The Queensland’s Nurses and Midwives Union is taking Queensland Health to the industrial relations tribunal amid concerns frontline workers are at risk due to ill-fitting masks.
Union secretary Beth Mohle told Neil Breen while frontline workers have been supplied the correct protective equipment to treat coronavirus patients, there is no assurance the masks are being correctly fit-tested.
While Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk mandated every healthcare worker treating patients diagnosed with coronavirus, Ms Mohle said the risk of infection is still present.
The union wants to see clear guidelines for fit-testing implemented across the state to prevent coronavirus transmissions to healthcare workers.
“These masks have to be properly fitted and then checked,” she said. “Every shift when you take them on and off, you have to check there’s an appropriate seal for those masks.
“People are exhausted and it’s in those circumstances that errors can be made, which means you really have to sure up these safety mechanisms of appropriate fit-testing.”
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