Covid-19: Faulty safety gear puts Hubballi KIMS medical staff at risk

Faulty safety gear supplied to the Karnataka Institute of Medical Science (KIMS) in Hubballi, which is the District Covid-19 Center, is attributed to be one of the main reasons for the majority of medical staff contracting the virus.

More than 50 medical staff, including staff doctors and postgraduate students working in the 250-bed Covid-19 ward of the KIMS have been infected with coronavirus over the last two months. For the last month or so, all the 30 beds that have been reserved for the Corona warriors at the KIMS have remained occupied on all the days.

As many as 18 PG students, and three senior doctors, who have worked in the Covid-19 wards, confirmed to DH that over the last month-and-a-half, the safety gear, especially the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kits, and N-95 masks, provided by the district administration to the medical staff, were of substandard quality.

For latest updates and live news on coronavirus, click here

Low-quality kits

While the medical staff working in the intensive care unit (ICU) of the Covid-19 ward are being provided with superior quality safety kits, the doctors and PG students, resident doctors, and nurses working in general wards are provided with second and third-grade safety gear, they said.

The photographic evidence provided by the student union members of the KIMS shows PPE kits being torn at multiple places, N-95 masks cut right at the centre, and filters of high-grade mask missing.

“Initially, the safety gear were good. However, of late, the safety gear, especially the N-95 masks and PPE kits, are of substandard quality. This is risking our lives,” said one of the PG students who did not wish to be named.

The lady PG student also stated that some of the PPE kits provided to them were as thin as tissue paper, while some were so thick that it was becoming impossible for them to work in them for six to eight hours at a stretch.

A senior doctor, requesting anonymity said, he was forced to bring his own N-95 masks as the one provided to him was stinking, and breathing through it was becoming difficult.

'Very few such cases'

Meanwhile, KIMS In-charge Medical Superintendent Rajashekar Dyaberi said, “I would not deny that there were some faulty safety gear supplied to us. But, they were one or two among thousands. The KIMS and the district administration are ensuring that the best of facilities are provided to our doctors and students.”

Till July 29, the KIMS has procured 22,316 PPE kits (including 3,938 donated kits) of which only 1,000 kits are remaining, while it has also used 49,633 N-95 masks, and others. However, it has not recorded the total number of faulty gear, he noted.

Deputy Commissioner Nitesh Patil said an inquiry will be set up regarding the supply of substandard protective gear. Instructions have been issued to KIMS officials to return an entire lot of protective gear even if one item is found faulty, and withhold the payment to the supplier.

Sources also said that a few of the faulty gear were donated by a private company.