A letter to our Federal and State Government to take immediate action on COVID-19

Our Nurses and Health Professionals need your support so they can care for Australians during the Covid-19 pandemic.

We urge you to put the following actions in place before the full force of the pandemic arrives.

1. Test all new patients and health professionals. Significant numbers of carriers show no symptoms or very mild symptoms. You need to find a supplier immediately who can guarantee the supply of at least a million test kits asap.
   
   
2. Make available proper Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to nurses and health care workers exposed to Covid-19. “NO PPE – NO WORK”  This means that you need to source PPE suppliers who can guarantee a supply of 10 million masks for Queensland alone each week. That is 50 million a week for Australia. By the time you get this letter, Queensland will have just about run out.
   
   
3. Provide comprehensive training in the use of PPE for all nurses working in areas with high exposure to Covid-19.
   
   
4. Reduce shifts because wearing PPE for 12 hours without a toilet and meal breaks will be unsustainable.
   
   
5. Bring back showers and hospital laundered uniforms. No uniform should leave the hospital. You need to protect Nurses families and their communities.
   
   
6. All Nurses over 60, immune-compromised, pregnant, with cancer history and respiratory problems, are exempt from Covid-19 patients and given the option to move to non-Covid-19 areas.
   
   
7. Health professionals caring for Covid-19 patients should at no stage be caring for any non-Covid-19 patients.
   
   
8. Make accommodation and meals available to nurses and doctors working with Covid-19 patients who want to protect their family from the virus.
   
   
9. Nurses who contract Covid-19 while at work will be entitled to leave for the period of their recovery.
   
   
10. Provide extra security for nurses from the public – there is an increasing number of physical and verbal assaults.
    
    
11. Stop denying nurses access to PPE in this crisis and support them.
    
    
12. Azythromycin has proven to be helping with pneumonia and a decreased need for ventilation. It is in low supply. You need to source millions of doses.

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