‘Majority of Health Workers Say They Cannot Access Masks and Gloves’

* Photo: Haluk Satır - Manisa / AA

Click to read the article in Turkish

The Turkish Medical Association (TTB) released its preliminary report based on its survey entitled "Risk Assessment as to Health Worker's Exposure to COVID-19 Virus" today (March 24).

70 percent of the participants say that there are more than one COVID-19 patients in the medical institutions where they work. The results of the survey show that health workers are still having a serious shortage of personal protective equipment, the TTB has commented.

1,820 health workers from 74 provinces participated

The survey opened on March 20 and remained open for the participation of health workers for two days. The web- and self-report- based survey was joined by 1,820 health workers from 74 of 81 provinces in Turkey.

The report has manifested the risks faced by health workers amid COVID-19 outbreak, which has so far claimed the lives of 37 people in Turkey.

6 percent of the participants say that they had face-to-face contact (from a 1-meter distance) with confirmed COVID-19 cases in their medical institutions.

'Training on protection not provided'

48 percent of the participants say that no separate triage spaces have been allocated for COVID-19 in their institutions while 44 percent indicate that no training was provided as to how to protect themselves from the virus.

53 percent of health workers say that they were not informed about the changes in their work organization following COVID-19 outbreak. 50 percent of the participants also indicate that they were not provided with any training materials on special diagnosis, treatment schemes, guides, etc.

While 31 percent of the participants have at least one chronic disease, 4 percent are over the age of 65 and 1 percent is pregnant.

Difficulty in accessing masks, gloves, glasses, gowns

The survey has manifested that health workers are still having difficulties in accessing personal protective equipments and materials while treating suspected or confirmed COVID-19 cases.

That is, while 78 percent of the participants say that they have difficulties in accessing N5 masks, 74 percent say that they have difficulty in accessing face shields or glasses, 60 percent medical masks and 38 percent say that they have difficulties in accessing gloves.

'Conditions have caused anxiety and fear'

The conclusion part of the survey has underlined that the preliminary findings of the survey have indicated a serious shortage and problems in terms of health workers' personal protective equipments and working conditions.

It has been further emphasized that these conditions pose a risk in terms of occupational illnesses and homicides while they are also causing anxiety and fear in healthcare workers.

Indicating that the infection of health workers will have a negative impact on medical services' response capacity to the outbreak and will thereby cause an aggravation of the problem, the report has also stressed the vital importance of developing a program to monitor and assess the health workers' protection from the virus as well as their infection with it.

Concluding the report, the TTB has reiterated the need to improve the working conditions at medical institutions and to fully provide health workers with the necessary personal protective equipments. (AS/SD)

* Click here to read the full survey results (in Turkish)