AMA Alarmed at Lack of Healthcare Worker Protection

The American Medical Association (AMA) is raising the alarm that there is a dangerous lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) for physicians and frontline healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic and urges the U.S. Government to take immediate action.

Healthcare workers across the United States are exhausting themselves and their resources responding to COVID-19. Their lack of resources is endangering everyone. In a recent press release, AMA President Patrice A. Harris M.D., M.A. said, “Physicians and frontline health care workers across the country are pleading for more PPE, doing everything they can to raise awareness of this crisis.”

Dr. Harris explained, “Those on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic are concerned that the lack of adequate PPE endangers not only themselves, but their patients and families as well.”

Providing adequate PPE to frontline healthcare workers will require a united effort from both manufacturers and the government. Dr. Harris stated, “At this critical moment, a unified effort is urgently needed to identify gaps in the supply of and lack of access to PPE necessary to fight COVID-19.”

National coordination of manufacturing and supply is essential to effective PPE distribution. Dr. Harris continued, “The AMA continues to urge the Administration to ensure manufacturing of PPE is operating at maximum possible capacity and create a national tracking system of acquisition and distribution of critical PPE supplies. Federal coordination is necessary to ensure adequate supply and will limit situations where states compete against each other at inflated prices for limited essential supplies.”

Due to the PPE shortage, many healthcare workers have had no other option than to use their own PPE. The AMA, in recognizing the need for more PPE, supported healthcare workers protecting themselves and their patients by using their own PPE.

The need for PPE is now. Physicians and healthcare workers are on the frontlines fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Harris concluded, “[T]heir need for protective gear is equally urgent and necessary.”

For OTW’s previous coverage of the AMA on COVID-19 see “AMA’s COVID-19 Guidance for Retired Physicians” and “AMA & NEJM Offer Resource Centers for COVID-19 News & Information.”