Yahoo News Aboriginal health services warn of 'catastrophic' shortage of coronavirus protective equipment
Rural Aboriginal medical services are facing a “catastrophic” shortage of personal protective equipment, which has left some clinics with just two weeks’ supply in the lead-up to the Covid-19 peak.
The Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council of NSW has warned that clinics in places like the far west town of Coonamble, where confirmed Covid-19 cases are beginning to emerge, require urgent action to boost PPE stocks.
Phil Naden, the chair and acting chief executive of the AHMRC said “the demand was there, obviously, but there’s just no supply”.
“We’re down to two weeks PPE, at the most, in a lot of our clinics,” he told the Guardian. “It’s a bit catastrophic at the moment, particularly with everything happening and the need for it.”
Naden warned some clinics may need to take dramatic steps if stocks were not replenished.
Related: Frontline doctors prepare for ‘death and suffering’ when coronavirus hits Indigenous communities
“The reality is that if you haven’t got it, to me, you shouldn’t function without it,” he said.
“You’re not only putting yourself at risk, you’re putting clients, family, your community at risk, everyone you come into contact with.”
PPE shortages have been felt right across the healthcare sector, to varying degrees.
The federal government is responding by releasing additional supplies from its emergency reserves in the national medical stockpile, while triaging requests from health and aged care providers to ensure the most pressing needs are met.
It has also moved to boost domestic production at the factory of existing PPE supplier Med-Con, and has issued a callout to other domestic manufacturers to identify who may be able to pivot into PPE production.
The government’s official advice is that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are at greater risk from Covid-19 because of overall poor health, overcrowded housing and high rates of respiratory disease, heart disease and diabetes, which increase the fatality rates of the virus.
A taskforce of experts in Indigenous health and epidemiology advising the national cabinet has released a detailed plan for dealing with the virus, which recommends urgent supplies of PPE and other medical equipment to regional and remote areas.
Frontline doctors say they are “preparing for death and suffering” in Aboriginal and Islander communities, because they don’t have the resources to evacuate very ill people.
“I don’t think our people are ready to face this serious virus,” Coonamble Aboriginal medical centre board member Gloria Fernando said.
“My worries for the elders are when they urgently need medical care and the hospitals are overcrowded. They will be forgotten about and left to die due to old age, because they will attend to the younger generation first.
“I definitely think our mob and our community have been forgotten about.
“I’m disappointed with our local shire, who supposedly run our town, for not putting things in place for our community.
“They have held one meeting that I know of and that was at the direction from our Coonamble Aboriginal Health Service to stakeholders to call a meeting about Covid- 19, but they didn’t invite any elders to speak on the First Nations people who are the most vulnerable to catch this virus.”
The World Health Organization has warned that PPE is critical in any effort to stop the spread of the virus. It has called on nations to lift their domestic production by 40% and end export restrictions.
The Orange Aboriginal Medical Service, in NSW’s central west, says it is attempting to conserve PPE as much as it possibly can, with face masks and sanitiser the items of highest need.
The service typically orders PPE monthly. It put in an order two weeks ago for new stocks, but the supplier said it was unable to give any ETA for when the equipment would arrive.
Chief executive Jamie Newman said the service had been given an interim supply of PPE by its peak body, and was now trying to reduce demand by moving as much of its services into telehealth as possible and sending administrative staff to work from home.
“It’s about changing our business,” Newman said. “Whether it’s three months, six months, or six weeks, we have to be smart business-wise in how we maintain resources, client care, and looking after our own staff.”
The shift to telehealth had been aided by this week’s federal government announcement of a $500m telehealth package, which had made it more viable for GPs.
“Like most other services, we’ve got limits on what we can be supplied with,” Newman said. “I suppose it’s up to every Aboriginal medical service in the region, the state, and the country, about what level of service we can provide, and the majority of that is through telehealth.”
“We’re trying to keep our hospitals from being overinflated with numbers, because if people can’t get that level of health care through a general practice or an Aboriginal Medical Service, they’re going to be flooding the hospitals, or they’re going to be at home suffering.
“That’s the last thing we want to see happen.”