Scottish social care workers to get extra PPE equipment

The Scottish Government has announced new measures to get personal protective equipment (PPE) to health and social care workers, as the coronavirus pandemic spreads.

Holyrood ministers have confirmed it will be issuing almost 8m items of PPE in the coming week to support primary care and social workers.

The equipment will include 500,000 aprons, 750,000 masks and 2m gloves to be sent to 70 delivery points around the country for social care workers.

In addition, GPs are being sent around 4.6m pieces of PPE equipment, including 1m aprons, 1m marks, 2m gloves and 550,000 goggles.

And the Scottish Government has also announced that patients in six hospitals across Scotland will receive free bedside television for the next three months.

According to the latest set of official figures (published 29 March), a total of 13,889 coronavirus tests have carried out in Scotland.

Of these 12,505 tests were confirmed negative and 1,384 tests were positive, and 41 patients who tested positive have died.

Last week, the trade union Unison called on the NHS in England to provide assurances that PPE equipment would be available for its members working in healthcare.

‘The safety of our health and social care workforce is an absolute priority, and we are continuously looking to improve the distribution of the protective equipment that is so vital in the fight against COVID-19,’ said Scottish health secretary, Jane Freeman.

‘These improvements will help to make sure we continue to deliver supplies needed – even in the face of unprecedented demand across the health and social care system.

‘We currently have adequate stocks of PPE – equating to six weeks’ worth of hospital stock for the most critical items,’ she added.

‘We will be issuing almost eight million items of PPE stock in the coming week to support primary care and social care. Work continues as an absolute priority to source further PPE to ensure there continues to be an appropriate supply for all our health and social care workforce.’

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