100 signatures reached
To: British Government
PPE for all NHS & Social Care Staff - via EU
I would like the UK government to consider the will of the British people in requesting to join the EU €1.5 billion procurement scheme for PPE (personal protective equipment) for NHS & social care staff working against coronavirus.
Why is this important?
On 13th April 2020 Guardian journalists discovered that the UK government have missed 3 chances to join a €1.5 billion EU scheme to buy PPE (personal protective equipment) to protect health and social care staff working against coronavirus. Medical unions in the UK are currently warning that stocks of protective gowns are critically low. On 12th April the Royal College of Surgeons found one in three surgeons in the UK lack enough protective kit. On 11th April the British Medical Association warned that NHS staff are risking their lives because they still don't have proper protective kit. And the UK Royal College of Nursing currently has fears that nurses may not be able to work due to lack of PPE.
This is putting medics in the impossible ethical position of having to choose between the care of their patients, and their own lives. And if more health and social care staff start to die this leaves fewer skilled people to care for those who are sick. Evidence from the frontline is clear that whatever our government is currently doing is not providing the NHS with enough protective kit for all staff who need this. This is clearly too big, and too urgent, for the UK to go alone. Please join me, as an NHS medic, in supporting this petition to ask our government to consider the will of the British people in deciding whether to join the EU PPE procurement plans, which we still can - to protect our healthcare workers, so that they can keep working to protect us all.
This is putting medics in the impossible ethical position of having to choose between the care of their patients, and their own lives. And if more health and social care staff start to die this leaves fewer skilled people to care for those who are sick. Evidence from the frontline is clear that whatever our government is currently doing is not providing the NHS with enough protective kit for all staff who need this. This is clearly too big, and too urgent, for the UK to go alone. Please join me, as an NHS medic, in supporting this petition to ask our government to consider the will of the British people in deciding whether to join the EU PPE procurement plans, which we still can - to protect our healthcare workers, so that they can keep working to protect us all.
