NI home care worker ‘sick with worry’ over lack of PPE

The domiciliary carer, who works for the Western Trust, told the News Letter she fears that she may be inadvertently spreading the virus to some of those most vulnerable to Covid-19

The community carer, who asked to remain anonymous, told the News Letter she and her colleagues are only permitted to use face masks if the person they are caring for is already displaying coronavirus symptoms.

“I love my work — I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t care about the people I am going to see,” she said.

“I would work night and day for them. And I am totally worried for them because I don’t know if I am carrying it (the virus) from one house to another. We don’t have the proper protection to cover ourselves.“

She continued: “We are not getting hand sanitizers. Instead, you have to take a bottle back to get them filled up and they are only filled halfway. You have to go to the office to get them filled.

“You are only allowed one box of gloves at a time.

“We get half-bags of aprons. They split the bags and share them out amongst carers. You should not split a bag of aprons because under infection control, that could mean they could become contaminated.

“We used to get a full pack of aprons and now we get half a packet.”

She added: “That’s the only equipment we get.

“We are not allowed to get masks. Not one mask, unless we go to a client and they are already showing symptoms. They could have that infection for 10 days before they are showing symptoms.”

The families of those she cares for are angry about the situation, the community care worker said.

“Some families can be quite rude but they are totally right,” she told the News Letter.

“They see that we are coming from house-to-house and then we are coming to see their loved ones. They want to know where the masks are, where the proper equipment is. They are saying to us that we could be brining the virus into the house. And they’re not wrong.

“But the equipment is just not there for us.”

She added: “I am completely sick with worry. I don’t even sleep. We are all the same. We are all worried. I am worried for my own children, I am worried for my own grandchildren.”

She also expressed concerns about testing, saying: “If we could get tests to tell us whether we are carrying the virus, we would know whether we can go and see the next client. But we can’t get tests either. So we could be going around spreading the virus.”

A spokesperson for the Western Trust, invited to respond to those concerns, insisted that “all staff who need PPE, in line with the clinical guidance, are able to access it in line with our normal processes.”

The Trust also said tests are available to “health care workers or a person in their household that they have direct contact with who is displaying COVID symptoms.”

The spokesperson added: “We would ask that if any member of staff has concerns, this should be raised with their line manager.”