Hospital staff protest lack of supplies, equipment to combat virus

Doctors, nurses and other hospital staff in México state protested on Monday to demand they be given the supplies they need to treat safely and effectively those infected with Covid-19, whose numbers are growing in at least a dozen municipalities in the state.

Beginning around 8:00 a.m., they gathered outside state hospitals in Toluca, Atizapán de Zaragoza, Naucalpan, Nicolás Romero, Nezahualcóyotl, Ecatepec, Tecámac, Texcoco and Ixtapaluca.

It was day two of the protest for staff of the Adolfo López Mateos state hospital in Toluca, who demanded sufficient and quality personal protection equipment after 14 nurses and one resident doctor at the facility were put into isolation and hospitalized for Covid-19.

Nurse Liliana Romero said that some supplies were sent to the hospital for the crisis, but not enough. “There aren’t any goggles or face masks. We got some body suits, but they aren’t fully sealed.”

There was a similar demonstration outside the Salvador González Herrejón state hospital, in Atizapán de Zaragoza.

“We can’t go to war without rifles,” said pediatrician Josefina Onofre Díaz. “We’re the most exposed [to the virus], those who fall first.”

Dr. Daniel Arellano of the hospital’s intensive care unit said there are not enough ventilators and other equipment to deal with the crisis.

A shipment of new beds and containers that Arellano said “we hope are full of equipment, supplies and high-grade medications” was sent to the hospital toward the end of the protest on Monday.

Elsewhere in the state, doctors, nurses and other staff from the José María Rodríguez state hospital in Ecatepec blocked a street in that city to protest a similar lack of supplies.

Source: El Universal (sp)