Attention for medical staff in the planning of measures against pandemics
17.4.2020
Question for written answer E-002354/2020
to the Commission
Rule 138
Simona Baldassarre (ID), Antonio Maria Rinaldi (ID), Silvia Sardone (ID), Marco Dreosto (ID), Matteo Adinolfi (ID), Francesca Donato (ID), Stefania Zambelli (ID)
In Italy, as of 10 April 2020, 129 doctors and 28 nurses had died after contracting coronavirus while treating patients. Many similar cases have also been reported in Spain and France. It seems clear that European medical and health workers, i.e. doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals, had to work in conditions that put them at serious personal risk during the early stages of the epidemic, when many of them were deprived of the necessary personal protective equipment and had not received strict instructions on its use. In addition, tests for the virus were not carried out on the scale or with the frequency necessary to reconcile the need to protect staff’s lives and the need to ensure the safety of their patients. The Commission Communication concerning Pandemic Influenza Preparedness and Response Planning (COM(2005)607) likewise does not make any specific reference to measures to protect health workers.
In view of this:
- 1.Does the Commission not consider it desirable to draw up recommendations to assign priority to the supply of adequate personal protective equipment to medical and health workers, to protect both them and their patients?
- 2.Does the Commission not consider it desirable to combine the same provisions with a recommendation on plans for screening corresponding to the prevalence of the epidemic?