A doctor who pleaded with the Prime Minister to provide more personal protective equipment for frontline NHS workers has died after contracting Covid-19.
Abdul Mabud Chowdhury wrote to Boris Johnson on March 18th asking him to “urgently” ensure “each and every NHS worker in the UK” is provided with PPE.
He told the PM that healthcare workers “are in direct contact with patients” and have a “human right like others to live in this world disease-free with our family and children”.
He passed away today after 15 days in hospital.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, posted online he wrote:
Dear and respectable Prime Minister Mr Boris Johnson,
Please ensure urgently Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for each and every NHS worker in the UK.
Remember we may be doctor/ nurse/ HCA/ allied health workers who are in direct contact with patients but we are also human being to practice human rights like other to live in this world disease free with our family and children.
People appreciate us and salute us for our rewarding job which are very inspirational but I would like to say, we have to protect ourselves and our families/ kids in this global disaster by using appropriate PPE and remedies.
I hope we are by default entitled to get this minimal support for our safe medical practice.
Otherwise in future our children will lose interest to go to medical school.
We also should get first track facilities for coronavirus testing to help our patients to prevent disease spreading.
The news of Mr Chowdhury’s sad passing comes as more than 100 medics in Scotland signed a letter to the Scottish Government to express concerns over personal protective equipment (PPE).
The letter is reported to claim front-line staff are risking their lives dealing with the Covid-19 outbreak because they do not have suitable aprons, masks and eyewear, according to BBC Scotland.
The broadcaster reports the medical professionals state they have “grave concerns about the adequacy of what has been given”.
Dr Shahzad Hanif, a GP, co-ordinated the open letter.
Speaking on the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme, he said: “It’s not just the quantity of PPE, which the Government has so far been focused on, but it’s the quality that we feel is simply not adequate to provide enough protection for us.
“There are certainly signs that the quantity of protective equipment is certainly coming through now, certainly into primary care where I work and messages I have had from secondary care echo that – that’s less of a concern to us now, to be honest.
“It’s more the quality of the equipment that we’re more anxious about now.”
Related: Coronavirus has been a great magnifier of the inequality and injustice that permeates society
