The province’s health minister says part of the challenge around securing PPE for the province is they’re receiving parts of orders, with the rest delivered in an unpredictable fashion.
John Haggie says that’s producing challenges on the frontline due to the increased demand for PPE.
He says the principle location in a global economy for the manufacturer of PPE has been Hubei province and Wuhan, China – where the virus originated.
Stock image by Nesnad, courtesy Wikimedia Commons
Haggie claims when that happened it became very difficult to fill orders. Since then, unfortunately, they have seen a trend of opportunism to creep in, and he says they’re seeing fake inventory and orders where you can only secure them by putting a down a deposit, and the order never materializes.
That, according to Haggie, is very frustrating for federal Minister of Health, Patty Hajdu and the federal government.
Haggie suspects some of the orders never existed in the first place.
He says they will continue with their normal and national procurement routes, along with the emergency stockpile.
In addition, Haggie says there is a very active group of local entrepreneurs who have produced prototypes of gowns, face shields and gloves.
He says those are currently being assessed locally to see if they meet the specifications of the materials they normally buy. If they do, Haggie says we can manufacture our own PPE and reduce the province’s reliance on outside circumstances they cannot control, and Newfoundlanders and Labradorians being taken advantage of.
He says it will also help other province to make more stock available nationally.
Meanwhile, In light of the growing healthcare needs, the Health Care Foundation has set up a COVID-19 Response Fund.
The donations received will go directly to support the needs of healthcare workers in the province.
You can view the fundraiser here.
