Nurses not getting enough masks, says NAJ boss

Christopher Thomas, Gleaner Writer 

Carmen Johnson, president of the Nurses' Association of Jamaica (NAJ), says that nurses have reported that they are not being provided with enough face masks or sanitisers to facilitate safe interactions with potential COVID-19 patients.  

Responding to reports that 17 healthcare workers have tested positive for the coronavirus, Johnson said that getting an adequate supply of safety gear is emerging as a challenge to her members, who are among the main players on the front line in the fight to control the spread of the virus.  

“One of the challenges we have is when we are told that we have things in stock, but the items are not transferring from the stock to the clinical areas, the sites where they need to be used,” Johnson told The Gleaner in an interview on Monday.

“For some areas, they complain that they are not getting enough of the masks that they require, both surgical and N95, and sometimes they complain that they do not have the right sanitisers or other cleaning agents specific to the control of COVID-19,” added Johnson. 

The NAJ boss said that it is often a challenge for nurses to get the required masks that they need to do their work effectively.

“The masks are rationed to certain clinical areas, but those persons are not being cognizant that although the other areas do not do the same task to the extent that those chosen areas do it, you are going to need some in the other areas, for instance, when the workers will come into direct contact with a patient who has been so diagnosed [with COVID-19],” said Johnson.

“We know by virtue of the work that we do that we are at high risk, but the challenge is that we were not expecting so many [COVID-19 cases among healthcare workers] in such short order. With the few of us being exposed to a number of patients, it simply means we will have to look again at how we do things,” added Johnson.  

Over the weekend, news came that Jamaica recorded 116 COVID-19 cases, including the 17 healthcare workers who tested positive, pushing the tally to 1,529.

There have also been 16 coronavirus-related deaths, while 817 patients have recovered from the respiratory disease.  

Of the 17 healthcare workers, eight were recorded at the Kingston Public Hospital while the remaining nine were recorded at other hospitals across the country.  

It was also announced that 120 doctors would be dispatched to hospitals across the country to aid in the fight against COVID-19.

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