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.
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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.
- 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.
- Provide comprehensive training in the use of PPE for all nurses working in areas with high exposure to Covid-19.
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Reduce shifts because wearing PPE for 12 hours without a toilet and meal breaks will be unsustainable.
- Bring back showers and hospital laundered uniforms. No uniform should leave the hospital. You need to protect Nurses families and their communities.
- 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.
- Health professionals caring for Covid-19 patients should at no stage be caring for any non-Covid-19 patients.
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Make accommodation and meals available to nurses and doctors working with Covid-19 patients who want to protect their family from the virus.
- Nurses who contract Covid-19 while at work will be entitled to leave for the period of their recovery.
- Provide extra security for nurses from the public – there is an increasing number of physical and verbal assaults.
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Stop denying nurses access to PPE in this crisis and support them.
- 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.
SIGN OUR PETITION FOR MORE PPE