Robert Peston on why doctors and nurses fear they are not being protected
We are relying on courageous NHS staff to help us through this terrible Covid-19 crisis. So many would say we have a duty to listen to their concerns and anxieties.
And as you will be aware, and as the chief executive of St George's University Hospital's Jac Totterdell has made explicit, lots of doctors and nurses do not feel that they are being given the appropriate protective clothing.
A leading consultant has explained the issue to me. It is probably best if I just use the consultant's own words.
"All we get are little plastic aprons that don’t cover your arms or neck or back or lower legs. And no facial protection, yet patients are coughing all over you.
"Then you walk through the hospital covered in (the) bug. Which as we know can live for days on surfaces...And we are therefore basically all super-spreaders".
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There are related points made by this and other doctors.
Those working with acute patients and in intensive care get so-called "level 1" or "level 2" Personal Protective Equipment, or PPE, which is removed as soon as a doctor or nurse leaves the patient.
And there are elaborate "doffing" techniques, for both levels, to remove the protective clothing to minimise risk of leaving fomites (virus particles) on the wearer's body or clothes.
But other doctors and nurses, who will see patients in hospital before they reach the acute and ITU wards, have only the plastic aprons and face mask.
The consultant again: "With level 2 PPE, which is head to toe, you should then be totally clean. And with level 1 PPE, that includes facial protection and a long sleeved floor length surgical gown, you should be totally clean too.
"But in our, UK specific, downgraded level 1 PPE, your face may be covered in virus, because patients are coughing on you. And remember, touching your face is one of the highest risk ways to spread virus.
"Plus half your body and clothes are covered in virus because all you've been wearing is a skimpy plastic apron
"So now you are a super-spreader, trailing bugs wherever you go - from patient bed to bed, into conversations with relatives. And even, importantly, from the hospital outside into the world at large. It's completely insane".
All of which begs multiple questions.
Why aren't those doctors, nurses and other medical staff who are in contact with suspected Covid-19 patients forced to change into scrubs when they get to the hospitals, with those scrubs discarded for washing when they finish their shifts before leaving the hospital?
Why aren't those medical staff at the least given a full facial visor and long sleeved surgical gown, as per World Health Organisation guidelines?
"The government are trying to pretend we’re all getting proper PPE but we’re not", says a doctor. And I've heard that sentiment from many.
There may well be scientifically sensible answers to all these questions, rather than that the NHS doesn't have enough kit. But many doctors tell me they haven't had those answers, and they are deeply troubled.
Surely they - and all of us - deserve to have their legitimate questions answered.