PPE Report: Whanganui health worker praises findings and improved supplies

A Whanganui support worker said shortages of protective equipment during the pandemic caused a lot of anxiety for clients. Photo / File

A Whanganui home support health worker says she is pleased an Auditor-General's report has highlighted the shortcomings of PPE (personal protective equipment) supplies during the Covid-19 pandemic.

"During the first weeks of lockdown, we were not receiving any PPE gear and had to share the meagre supplies we had between us," the woman, who did not want to be identified, said.

"It was a very stressful time for us and for our clients."

The E tū union, which represents 15,000 workers in the New Zealand health sector, met Ministry of Health and District Health Board (DHB) representatives in early March to show their concerns about a lack of supplies.

The Auditor-General's office began investigating the issue of PPE in April after concerns were raised and released its report this week.

It identified a number of significant problems in the Ministry's PPE management and distribution including:

• That it didn't know how much PPE it had
• How much had expired
• Mixed messaging led to confusion
• Different DHBs had inconsistent information
• There hadn't been a national stocktake since 2016
• It didn't know how much PPE would be needed
• Its demand model didn't take into account many frontline healthcare workers
• That there were gaps in the planning

"For a national reserve system to operate well, you need to know how much stock might be needed, what is held in supplies, whether the stock is usable, how stock can most effectively be distributed, and how you can quickly source more stock if you need to," the report said.

E tū director Kirsty McCully says workers knew early on there was a major systems failure in access to PPE.

"The experience of E tū members and other frontline healthcare workers varied massively, as outlined in an E tū survey of workers in April and this caused unnecessary stress and concern. Some workers waited weeks for access to PPE."

More than 10,000 E tū members are employed in care and support roles such as home support, disability support and residential aged care.

"The current contracting system and multiple, layered split of services and tendering processes across DHBs was a major barrier to workers and clients accessing PPE," McCully said.

When the Whanganui health worker first spoke to the Chronicle in April, her employer was asking the Whanganui DHB to send PPE supplies to their Auckland base for distribution.

"Since the DHB insisted on local distribution we have been getting plenty of PPE," she says now.

"I think if we did have to go back into lockdown we would have enough but I would hate to go back there."

McCully says it was essential that workers' voices were included in any changes to PPE provision during major health events in future.