Coronavirus: Almost half of all doctors had to buy own PPE or rely on donations, survey shows

Chair of BMA council calls data ‘damning indictment’ of government

Almost half of doctors have had to buy their own personal protective equipment (PPE) or have received it through a donation, according to a new survey by the British Medical Association (BMA).

Although it acknowledged that PPE supplies have improved, the BMA said that the responses of 16,343 doctors in England shows more must be done to protect healthcare workers.

The trade union said it was the largest survey of health workers conducted during the coronavirus crisis so far.

Of the respondents, 48 per cent said they had either acquired PPE directly for themselves or their department, or had been given it by a charity or local firm.

Fifty-five per cent of GPs have received protective equipment in this way, compared with 38 per cent of hospital doctors.

Almost two-thirds of the doctors said they felt only partly or not at all protected during the pandemic, while almost a third of respondents (30 per cent) said they had not spoken out about PPE, staff shortages, testing or drug shortages because they did not think it would help.

As well as concerns over PPE, the survey reveals the toll the coronavirus response is having on the mental health of frontline health workers.

More than a quarter of doctors said they were suffering from a mental health condition, including depression and anxiety, which was related to or made worse by working during the pandemic.

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, the chair of the BMA council, said the data is “a damning indictment of the government’s abject failure to make sure healthcare workers across the country are being supplied with the life-saving kit they should be”.

He added: “There is still a lot for the government to do to protect its front line.”

One doctor had written in the space left for a comment that the PPE situation had been “an outrage for all staff”.

Another said they were “coping” but admitted that it is a “worrying time” on the frontline, with “no NHS eye protection and only flimsy aprons and cheap surgical masks”.

Dr Nagpaul asked the government how it could be sure the pandemic was under control when healthcare workers are “not being made safe”.

Boris Johnson said in a press briefing on Thursday that there had been difficulties in securing enough PPE, but that those in charge were “throwing everything at it, heart and soul, night and day, to get it right”.

Doctors filled in the survey between 28 and 30 April.

Additional reporting from PA