We've noticed your using a old browser this may cause issuse when experincing our site. We recommend updating your browser here this provides the latest browsers for you to download. This just makes sure your experince our website and all others websites in the best possible way. Close

NEWS: Government promises volunteer army – but doctors query masks

New government powers will bring millions of volunteers into the health and care system, the government has announced – amid continuing doubts about the protection being offered to doctors.

Details of the plans for health care emerged yesterday – but many doctors complained about the quality of protective equipment and the lack of virus testing for front-line workers. The government is offering to pay three million existing volunteers while they take breaks of up to four weeks from work. These could be topped up by medical students, who would be allowed to work as health care assistants but not as doctors, the General Medical Council revealed.

Under the powers there will be a new indemnity scheme for NHS staff who are working outside their normal duties.
There will also be a bonfire of red tape – with reductions in paperwork for discharge and in reporting requirements for GPs in England.

The UK death total reached 71 yesterday and overall Europe looked increasingly set to suffer a worse epidemic than China. Italy could overtake China’s Hubei province in numbers of cases and deaths today – while Europe as a whole is about to exceed the total toll in China. A statement from the World Health Organisation’s European region said: “Europe is the epicentre of the first pandemic of coronavirus and every country, with no exceptions, need to take their boldest actions to stop or slow down the virus spread.”

The UK powers will see for the first time police and immigration officers able to enforce public health measures, including the detention of those who fail to comply with isolation rules. The GMC confirmed that its first aim will be to re-register doctors who have recently given up registration or licence to practice. It also cancelled all its PLAB2 tests.

Meanwhile practices across the country complained about being issued out of date face masks. Doctors reported receiving masks with an expiry date of 2016, often with stickers placed over the top showing a date of 2021, the Daily Mail reported. The Department of Health and Social Care says the masks have passed “stringent” tests.

Dr Matt Mayer, chief executive of the local medical committees in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, said: “To now find that it is not just out of date, but that the expired date has apparently been deliberately concealed is staggering. We demand a full investigation into this matter immediately by the Department of Health and expect criminal charges to be brought if this is found to have been deliberate.”

Measures that emerged from a parliamentary hearing and a letter circulated, simultaneously by NHS England, included: the target of freeing 30,000 beds for virus patients; the offer of NHS-funded hotel stays for NHS staff, who might otherwise have to self-isolate along with other family members; the deployment of clinically qualified staff working for government agencies to the front-line; the potential allocation of some hospitals as “Covid-19 only” centres of care; the “ramping up” of domestic production of gowns and facemasks.

Pregnant women were advised to self-isolate – although the three royal colleges overseeing their care said there was no new evidence to support this. They welcomed it as a “precautionary” approach.

Rating

GP Practice News

GP news from Practice Index.

View all posts by GP Practice News
The 2024/25 GP contract – By Ben Gowland

March 21, 2024

Is the National Living Wage affordable?

March 14, 2024

No comments yet.

Leave a Reply

Get in the know!
newsletterpopup close icon
practice index weekly

Subscribe to the Weekly, our free email newsletter.

Keeping you updated and connected.