Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current issue
    • Past issues
    • Early releases
    • Collections
    • Sections
    • Blog
    • Infographics & illustrations
    • Podcasts
    • COVID-19 Articles
  • Authors & Reviewers
    • Overview for authors
    • Submission guidelines
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Forms
    • Editorial process
    • Editorial policies
    • Peer review process
    • Publication fees
    • Reprint requests
    • Open access
    • Patient engagement
  • Members & Subscribers
    • Benefits for CMA Members
    • CPD Credits for Members
    • Subscribe to CMAJ Print
    • Subscription Prices
  • Alerts
    • Email alerts
    • RSS
  • JAMC
    • À propos
    • Numéro en cours
    • Archives
    • Sections
    • Abonnement
    • Alertes
    • Trousse média 2023
  • CMAJ JOURNALS
    • CMAJ Open
    • CJS
    • JAMC
    • JPN

User menu

Search

  • Advanced search
CMAJ
  • CMAJ JOURNALS
    • CMAJ Open
    • CJS
    • JAMC
    • JPN
CMAJ

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current issue
    • Past issues
    • Early releases
    • Collections
    • Sections
    • Blog
    • Infographics & illustrations
    • Podcasts
    • COVID-19 Articles
  • Authors & Reviewers
    • Overview for authors
    • Submission guidelines
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Forms
    • Editorial process
    • Editorial policies
    • Peer review process
    • Publication fees
    • Reprint requests
    • Open access
    • Patient engagement
  • Members & Subscribers
    • Benefits for CMA Members
    • CPD Credits for Members
    • Subscribe to CMAJ Print
    • Subscription Prices
  • Alerts
    • Email alerts
    • RSS
  • JAMC
    • À propos
    • Numéro en cours
    • Archives
    • Sections
    • Abonnement
    • Alertes
    • Trousse média 2023
  • Visit CMAJ on Facebook
  • Follow CMAJ on Twitter
  • Follow CMAJ on Pinterest
  • Follow CMAJ on Youtube
  • Follow CMAJ on Instagram
News

Canadian primary care doctors face shortage of protective equipment

Laura Eggertson
CMAJ April 06, 2020 192 (14) E380-E381; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.1095856
Laura Eggertson
Wolfville, N.S
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Figures & Tables
  • Responses
  • Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

Family doctors worried about potential exposure to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are using social media to swap patterns for face masks and reusable gowns, while decrying a shortage of personal protective equipment.

“I got an update from Public Health saying that if I do a home visit, I’m expected to put a mask on myself, and wear an isolation gown and a face shield,” says Dr. Carola Collins, a palliative care physician and family doctor in Ingersoll, Ont.

But Collins has no isolation gowns, no face shields and, until earlier this week when she began making her own out of quilting scraps, she was down to her last three surgical masks. She can’t find any equipment and is concerned about transferring the virus during her work in the community, especially when visiting palliative patients at homes.

Other community doctors in a 7000-member Facebook group are posting about equipment shortages and sharing sources for reusable gowns and do-it-yourself face shields. And Collins’ nursing colleagues in Ontario, especially those who conduct home visits, have complained of similar equipment shortages.

“The government has given us nothing,” said Dr. Javed Alloo, a family doctor in North Toronto. “We had a couple of gowns left over from H1N1 in our clinic. Hopefully we can get away with surgical masks… I have been talking to many doctors who don’t have anything.”

During the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) crisis of 2003, health care practitioners received kits of personal protective equipment to ensure they could treat patients, according to Dr. Yoni Freedhoff, an associate professor of family medicine at the University of Ottawa. “We definitely all received boxes with gowns, masks (over the ears, not N95), gloves, hand sanitizer and such,” said Freedhoff. He’s urging federal and provincial public health authorities to do the same now.

Figure

Without a supply of protective equipment, Ontario family physician Dr. Carola Collins and others have started making their own.

Image courtesy of Photo courtesy of Dr. Carola Collins

The lack of protective equipment is particularly challenging for clinicians who care for patients in vulnerable circumstances. Personal protective equipment is running low among teams working with people experiencing homelessness, says Dr. Jeffrey Turnbull, medical director of Ottawa Inner City Health.

“We plan to open an isolation unit tomorrow and we will very quickly exhaust all personal protective equipment,” Turnbull said. “If you don’t have it, then you are putting your staff at an exceptional risk.”

Turnbull, a past-president of the Canadian Medical Association, urged the provinces and public health officials to quickly distribute equipment.

Protecting people experiencing homelessness across Canada protects the health care system, he said. “We are doing our very best to protect the hospitals and the scarce resources we have there.”

The federal government has acknowledged shortages, not just of personal protective equipment, but also ventilators and swabs for testing kits. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland suggested in a March 19 news conference that money is not the problem. Equipment is in short supply globally.

“We are looking at every single option… whether it is the possibility of making some of this stuff [in Canada], whether it is various really extraordinary procurement efforts around the world that we are engaged in, and also knowing what everybody has so we can manage surges around the country,” said Freeland.

Even though the federal government is leading the response to COVID-19, provinces and regions have been trying to smooth supply of protective equipment. “We’ve been trying to work at our regional tables to look at those local needs and see how they can be dealt with,” said Dr. David Williams, Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health. For now, Williams is directing family doctors to send patients who may have COVID-19 to special assessment centres, rather than screen them unsafely in their practices, and encouraging more virtual care.

Footnotes

  • Posted on cmajnews.com on March 20, 2020

PreviousNext
Back to top

In this issue

Canadian Medical Association Journal: 192 (14)
CMAJ
Vol. 192, Issue 14
6 Apr 2020
  • Table of Contents
  • Index by author

Article tools

Respond to this article
Print
Download PDF
Article Alerts
To sign up for email alerts or to access your current email alerts, enter your email address below:
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on CMAJ.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Canadian primary care doctors face shortage of protective equipment
(Your Name) has sent you a message from CMAJ
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the CMAJ web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
Canadian primary care doctors face shortage of protective equipment
Laura Eggertson
CMAJ Apr 2020, 192 (14) E380-E381; DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.1095856

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
‍ Request Permissions
Share
Canadian primary care doctors face shortage of protective equipment
Laura Eggertson
CMAJ Apr 2020, 192 (14) E380-E381; DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.1095856
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like

Jump to section

  • Article
    • Footnotes
  • Figures & Tables
  • Responses
  • Metrics
  • PDF

Related Articles

  • No related articles found.
  • PubMed
  • Google Scholar

Cited By...

  • No citing articles found.
  • Google Scholar

More in this TOC Section

  • What to know about Omicron XBB.1.5
  • Could a flu shot push help curb pediatric hospitalizations?
  • Stalemate: What’s holding up a new health accord?
Show more News

Similar Articles

Collections

  • Topics
    • Canadian government
    • Family medicine, general practice, primary care
    • Infectious diseases

 

View Latest Classified Ads

Content

  • Current issue
  • Past issues
  • Collections
  • Sections
  • Blog
  • Podcasts
  • Alerts
  • RSS
  • Early releases

Information for

  • Advertisers
  • Authors
  • Reviewers
  • CMA Members
  • CPD credits
  • Media
  • Reprint requests
  • Subscribers

About

  • General Information
  • Journal staff
  • Editorial Board
  • Advisory Panels
  • Governance Council
  • Journal Oversight
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Copyright and Permissions
  • Accessibiity
  • CMA Civility Standards
CMAJ Group

Copyright 2023, CMA Impact Inc. or its licensors. All rights reserved. ISSN 1488-2329 (e) 0820-3946 (p)

All editorial matter in CMAJ represents the opinions of the authors and not necessarily those of the Canadian Medical Association or its subsidiaries.

To receive any of these resources in an accessible format, please contact us at CMAJ Group, 500-1410 Blair Towers Place, Ottawa ON, K1J 9B9; p: 1-888-855-2555; e: cmajgroup@cmaj.ca

Powered by HighWire