LONDON, ONT. -- The Ontario Nurses' Association (ONA) is sounding the alarm about a dangerously low supply of some personal protective equipment (PPE) for its members working at the London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC).
ONA Local 100 President James Murray says, “Nurses are going to find themselves in a situation where they are now being forced by the employer to choose between providing care to the patients and their own personal safety.”
He says the union was told the current supply of certain types of face masks at the hospital will last less than a week.
Murray says they asked repeatedly about supplies, “And they’ve denied and gone public to say there is no shortage of PPE at LHSC, only to be told we have these critical low numbers of equipment.”
But a recent announcement from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau may help.
He said over a million masks are arriving at a Hamilton warehouse, in addition to the 10 million that have been brought in in recent days.
The masks used by London-area nurses are provided by a warehouse that handles roughly 20 hospitals in the region.
Still, there is no word on whether the incoming equipment will arrive before LHSC starts running out in about five days.
