Ms Michele Monahan:

The situation with regard to PPE has evolved. The initial three to four weeks were a nightmare, as has been well documented. With regard to what came from China, the large size would fit a small person so some of us had no hope of getting into it. That was a very significant issue for staff. The issue with hand sanitiser arose because of reliance on a single source. Everything came from one place so, when that one place could no longer supply us, we had no other supplier available to us. The market was oversubscribed because the whole world wanted the same product.

I work in Connolly Hospital where we have a very good team so were not left without anything at any time. We distributed through the wards and became a team. If one area was running low on something one could go somewhere else for it. Everybody worked together. From speaking to my colleagues around the country, I know that this did happen, that things were locked away and that people did have to beg for PPE. That is just not right. The least staff working throughout this pandemic needed was the ability to do their jobs safely. An awful lot of them were denied that. That put them under a lot of pressure and stress. Many did not want to go back to work. People had full-blown panic attacks at work. They felt they could not go to work because radiographers carry out portable X-rays on every Covid patient and people just could not cope with doing that when they might not have PPE.

We really need to learn from all of this. We really need to look after our workers including those who get infected, those who are post-infection and those who are left behind working double and triple shifts and going to places where they do not normally work to pick up the slack while having to learn a new skill set on the job. We need to learn and learn quickly. We need that report and we need statutory backing for everything that happens because we cannot face another pandemic while addressing capacity issues at the same time.