UK calls in army in COVID-19 fight, NHS staff feel like 'cannon fodder' over lack of coronavirus protection

Some NHS medical staff in the UK feel like 'cannon fodder' over the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) against coronavirus, and on Monday the government said the military would help ship millions of items including masks to healthcare workers who have complained of shortages.

Frontline staff in UK hospitals treating COVID-19 patients have been begging for masks, gloves, face shields, and hazmat suits.

The situation is so desperate that some nurses and doctors were and are reportedly improvising by tying plastic aprons around their heads, and affixing clinical waste bags around their legs.

From the Guardian:

Responding to staff concerns, Dr Rinesh Parmar, chair of the Doctors' Association, told BBC1's The Andrew Marr Show: "We have had doctors tell us they feel like lambs to the slaughter, that they feel like cannon fodder. GPs tell us that they feel absolutely abandoned.

"We are all pleading with Boris Johnson that [the government] really look into arranging the vital personal protection equipment that all of us need on the NHS frontline. What our doctors are telling us is that although equipment is arriving, some of it is inadequate, some of it doesn't meet the World Health Organization guidance. That really doesn't fill frontline healthcare staff with the confidence that they need."

Nurses in the Royal Free hospital in north London have been affixing clinical waste bags around their legs, the Guardian has been told, while at North Middlesex hospital they have been tying plastic aprons around their heads.

One nurse, who did not wish to be named, said: "Widespread nurses are making their own PPE. I know friends I trained with doing the same. We have to protect ourselves, some of us have children and babies. We are trying to help people but have to protect families. I don't know why we are not getting PPE."

Read more at the Guardian:
NHS staff feel like 'cannon fodder' over lack of coronavirus protection

And at Reuters, an update on the military delivering gear to NHS hospitals:
UK calls in army and warns people to stay home or face lockdown