Hospitals washing gowns at 60C to re-use PPE as stocks run low

Some hospitals are washing single-use protective gowns at 60C so they can be used several times by frontline staff because of the ongoing shortage, according to a senior NHS official.

Chris Hopson, the chief executive of NHS Providers, also said hospitals could not rely on government promises that more personal protective equipment (PPE) was on the way – saying there was “relatively low confidence” a shipment of 400,000 gowns would arrive from Turkey on Monday.

The head of the membership organisation for NHS trusts in England said some trusts had taken to “hand-to mouth” arrangements, with one discovering that some types of gowns remained fluid-repellent if washed at high temperatures.

“There is no doubt that at the moment, we have now got trusts who have definitely got shortages of gowns,” Mr Hopson told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “Trust leaders are doing absolutely everything they can to try and address that problem.”

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Source: The Independent, 20 April 2020