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Dozens of doctors desperate to protect themselves from potential COVID-19 patients have pooled together $114,000 to buy masks, gowns, face shields and goggles directly from a Chinese manufacturer they have never dealt with before.
Key points:
- Doctors will not know if the bulk order from China "lives up to expectations" until it is delivered
- GP Alvin Chua says he felt they were being used as "cannon fodder" while working without proper protective equipment
- Out of sheer desperation they have been buying masks from hardware stores
It was the idea of Adelaide GP Alvin Chua who is fed up with the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) his clinic is receiving from the National Medical Stockpile.
"We're getting a box of 50 masks every two or three weeks to be shared amongst eight to 10 doctors at each surgery and that's really not enough to get us through," Dr Chua told 7.30.
"When we try to source it from our usual suppliers they're either sold out or the prices have gone through the roof."
Dr Chua and his colleagues have been struggling to buy masks and hand sanitiser to replace their stock since early February.
"Out of sheer desperation, we've gone to Bunnings, we've gone to Mitre 10, and essentially my local Mitre 10 store has a mask limit per customer of four masks per day."
"Every morning before work I stop by and get my four masks and go to work with it and encourage each of the doctors to do the same thing."
Today Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said 11 million masks would start being distributed to healthcare workers immediately.
'We need to ensure this PPE lives up to expectations'
Dr Chua is the owner of his GP practice, which now runs an outdoor fever clinic for patients.
"To give you an idea, if a suspected patient comes in, the patient needs to be masked, the doctor seeing the patient also needs to be masked and as such each patient will chew up a minimum of two masks, so a box of 50 masks will last 25 patients," Dr Chua said.
"Then you share that amongst eight to 1- doctors, that really doesn't do much at all.
"Realistically within two or three days we've used up those 50 masks very easily."
With doctors at his clinic warning him they would prefer not to see patients if they were not protected, Dr Chua started searching for a solution.
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He contacted multiple Chinese manufacturers who said they could supply him with equipment and then spoke with 22 other GP clinics in South Australia to ask if they wanted to add to his orders.
"Our orders include surgical masks — about 25,000 of those — KN95 masks — and that's 10,000 of those — we've got about 8,000 bottles of hand sanitiser coming in, we have 22,000 disposable aprons and protective gowns coming in, as well as several thousand disposable goggles," he said.
But Dr Chua admits he is taking a huge gamble by relying on manufacturers he has never dealt with before.
"The worry we all have, and especially if you look in the last few days, there have been reports of PPE being rejected from the Netherlands, for example, and for us it's a real concern," he said.
"With that come all the risks — whether the stuff will be delivered, quality control and certification of the goods.
"There's that fear in the back of my mind, especially when you're considering there's close to $114,000 at stake that all 22 practices here in South Australia have invested in.
"We need to ensure that these PPE live up to expectations and they actually protect us rather than be a waste of time."
Chinese souvenir manufacturers trying to sell PPE
An investigation by 7.30 into multiple Chinese manufacturing companies offering to sell PPE to Australian medical suppliers has found some of the businesses are not even registered and have no experience in producing medical masks or equipment.
Instead, some of these manufacturers specialise in producing wine accessories, gifts and souvenirs.
First aid and medical supplier MediBC is currently being emailed several times a day by new or repurposed Chinese companies selling face masks and other medical equipment.
"What worries me is the sheer frequency of the number of emails we're getting," MediBC owner Michael Randall told 7.30.
"We're getting 10, 15 or 20 emails a day, I've lost count, saying 'we've got N95 masks available, we've got shields'.
"It's people with emails that don't even belong to a mask manufacturer. It's almost like everyone's jumped on the bandwagon.
"There's no doubt there are mask manufacturers [in China] who are making their masks in proper conditions, but there's a lot to sift through to get to that."
'To say we're desperate is an understatement'
The first box of surgical masks was delivered to Dr Chua yesterday. He said so far the quality was good.
But there is still a lot more yet to come from different suppliers.
"To say we're desperate is probably an understatement in the least," he said.
"The sooner we can get it, the better, and then we can get on with our day-to-day work."
Dr Chua said word about his bulk order had spread in Adelaide and he had been contacted by local aged care homes and even some private hospitals asking if he could add some PPE to the order.
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"I've probably got enough to fulfil another order of a similar size, but I'm waiting to see when my shipment comes in to guarantee the quality before committing to anymore," he said.
Dr Chua said he believed the Federal Government was doing the best it could, but sometimes he wondered whether GPs were the forgotten ones on the front line.
"I'll be honest and say at the start it did feel like we were being used as cannon fodder, being tasked to do the jobs without proper protective equipment," he said.
Watch this story tonight on 7.30.
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Topics: diseases-and-disorders, epidemics-and-pandemics, infectious-diseases-other, doctors-and-medical-professionals, health, healthcare-facilities, adelaide-5000, sa, australia