Coronavirus in Romania: Survey among health workers reveals shortage of protective equipment, lack of training
Nearly 80% of respondents to a survey carried out among healthcare workers in Romania said that the medical unit where they work doesn’t have sufficient individual protective equipment, and 42.6% said that they had to buy protective materials themselves.
These are the first results of a research conducted by „Solidaritatea Sanitară” Federation on the perception of healthcare workers on the stocks of individual protective equipment. The general conclusion resulting from this survey’s data indicates that "the Romanian healthcare system is not yet prepared for the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, the biggest weakness being the serious shortages of individual protective equipment,” local G4media.ro reported.
65% of respondents indicated that they had not been trained in the use, placing, taking off and disposal of personal protective equipment. Meanwhile, 51.58% of healthcare workers indicated that they were not provided with protocols for the evaluation, triage and treatment of patients with COVID-19.
Only 44.59% of the respondents indicated that the unit has a nosocomial infection monitoring system for staff. At the same time, only 26.9% of respondents indicated that the unit has initiated procedures for consulting employees/employees’ representatives on the preparation for the fight with COVID-19.
According to the same data, 68.5% of the respondents stated that they have to wash their work clothes at home.
Only 13.3% of the employees consider that the current level of the medical staff in their unit is adequate to the volume of patients that could be admitted.
The research was carried out between March 14 and March 17, based on an opinion questionnaire adapted to public consultation. The questionnaire was addressed to all categories of health workers, regardless of the form of ownership of the unit in which they work. A total of 3,690 employees responded to the invitation to fill out the questionnaire, and 1,404 of them provided complete answers.
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