Expired surgical masks given to NHS workers

Several whistleblowers from NHS Scotland have come forward to reveal that the surgical masks given to them for the coronavirus outbreak are out of date.

Healthcare workers from different areas of the NHS, including some from Fife and Tayside, have told Kingdom FM News and the Courier that the original expiry dates on the fluid-repellent masks say they went out of date in 2016.

Despite this, labels have been stuck over the top of the old expiry dates with the new date of July 2021 printed on them.

In a document sent to GPs across the country, the Scottish Chief Medical Officer said that the labels has been covered after the manufacturers conducted "rigorous testing" on some of the masks to ensure that they are still effective.

However, one of the whistleblowers who came forward said that this does not solve the issue that secondary care services are having.

"Growing numbers of people are being looked after at home and the expectation is that our community services, GP practices, district nurses, allied health professionals, carers are going to be expected to care for these people, as numbers grow, in their own homes," the NHS worker said.

"Yet we have not been provided with hand sanitising gel, we are struggling to get any masks and the masks we have been provided with are out of date by four years.

"At the moment, we are getting limited supplies [of masks] which, if someone was being seen at home, we would have enough to visit probably one patient in a month. We have waited two weeks to get the limited amount of surgical masks we have been provided with.

"How do primary care staff and social care staff continue to provide a service without personal protective equipment?

"The balance needs to shift to ensure that both secondary care, hospital and primary care are provided with everything they need to maintain the service, to keep patients and staff safe and to be able to meet the growing challenges ahead."