Editorial voice from elsewhere
In the war against COVID-19, they are our front-line troops. They need reinforcements. And our help. A group of nurses is pleading for basic but crucial equipment as they battle a faceless enemy.
We are talking about the essentials – the bare minimum, really – that health care professionals need to protect themselves and their patients.
They are in dire need of masks, face shields and gowns.
“We’re putting everybody at risk,” said Maureen May, a registered nurse at Temple University Hospital and president of the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, or PASNAP. She said critical shortages of personal protective equipment, or PPE, have led to rationing and even reuse of materials.
May was joined on a conference call recently by U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle, a Philadelphia Democrat, to lay out just how dire the situation is and to urge President Donald Trump to fully implement the Defense Production Act.
Boyle commiserated with the struggles of those on the front lines in the health care field.
“It’s disturbing the number of unnecessary risks that they have to go through,” the congressman said. He offered as an example something that would have been unfathomable just a month ago, reusing PPE. What would have been a tremendous violation of protocol a month or so ago has become standard practice due to severe shortages, and that’s unacceptable
Boyle argued that the nation needs a mandate for mass scale production of PPE.
Exactly how critical the situation for health care professionals in the state is became crystal clear when Gov. Tom Wolf issued an executive order allowing Pennsylvania emergency management officials to commandeer equipment deemed critical to health care professionals in their battle against COVID-19. That includes N95 face masks, ventilators and other key medical equipment.
Much like the way he handled the closing of schools across the state, and non-essential businesses, Wolf is not asking; he is ordering.
His latest edict requires private and public health care facilities, manufacturers and other companies to tabulate their supplies of personal protective gear, drugs and other medical equipment, and provide an inventory to the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency.
PEMA then has the authority to seize those items in order to make crucial supplies available to areas of the state hit hardest by the coronavirus outbreak.
“Combating the pandemic means we all have to work together,” the governor said during his afternoon video conference. “That means we need to make the best use of our medical assets to ensure the places that need them the most, have them.”
He’ll get no argument from Robin Schwartz. She works at Geisinger Community Medical Center in Scranton and is a vice president of PASNAP.
She offered a stark view of the conditions on the front lines of this fight.
“We wear our masks for a week,” Schwartz said. “These masks are designed for one day, throw it away, get another mask. We are now using it for a week.”
Peg Lawson has worked as a registered nurse at Philadelphia’s Albert Einstein Medical Center for 30 years. She echoed the critical nature of the dwindling supplies of key PPE supplies.
“I’ve been doing this for 30 years and I’m terrified that my co-workers will be exposed and get sick because our supply stock is being so stringently monitored.”
Over the past few weeks, many have offered plaudits for the people who represent our first line of defense against the coronavirus.
Now it’s time to put those words into action.
Wolf was right to issue his order. No health care provider should be lacking the proper equipment, or be afraid to do their jobs.
They are putting their lives on the line for us.
The least we can do is give them a fighting chance.