Only half of GPs have adequate PPE: survey

Nearly a fifth of Victorian GPs surveyed have seen at least one COVID-19 patient at their practice.

Welcome to The Medical Republic‘s COVID Catch-Up.

It’s the day’s COVID-19 news into one convenient post. Email bianca@biancanogrady.com with any tips, comments or feedback.

13 August

• Over 40% of Australian health professionals have ‘inadequate’ PPE, survey finds.
• Stillbirths and neonatal deaths increase in Nepal during lockdown, while hospital births drop.
• All the MBS telehealth item numbers in one handy document, along with Q&A.
• Australia’s COVID-19 guidelines taskforce is surveying doctors.
• Highest daily death toll from COVID-19 in Victoria yesterday, and one death in NSW.

• A survey of 629 Australian GPs and GP registrars has found nearly three-quarters of respondents think a COVID-19 vaccine probably or definitely should be compulsory for health professionals.
  The survey by Healthed also found that more than 40% of respondents had inadequate PPE. Most said they were managing, but a small number said they needed supplies urgently. Just over half said their PPE supplies were adequate. One third of respondents were sourcing their PPE from government stocks, but more than 41% were getting it from private suppliers, and 3% said employees were responsible for their own PPE.
  Among the Victorian GPs who responded to the survey, 18% had seen at least one COVID patient in their practice in the past four weeks.
  When asked to rate the performance of various state and federal governments and organisations, the GPs overall rated most of them well. But 32% of Victorians rated their state government and health department’s performance as poor or very poor.
• The rate of institutional births in Nepal during the COVID-19 pandemic has plummeted, but the rate of pre-term birth, stillbirth and neonatal mortality has gone up substantially, according to new data.
  A study published in The Lancet Global Health analysed prospective, observational data from two ongoing quality improvement studies involving 21,763 pregnant woman. Researchers noted a nearly 53% decrease in institutional births by the end of the COVID-19 lockdown period in Nepal. They also saw a 30% increase in the risk of preterm birth during lockdown, a 46% increase in the risk of institutional stillbirth, and a more than three-fold increase in the risk of neonatal mortality.
  There was also a significantly higher rate of complications, induced labour and caesarean sections during the lockdown period compared to before lockdown.
  “The decrease in use of health facilities started in the weeks before lockdown, possibly indicating a heightened fear of disease transmission, which might have stopped women from seeking care at health facilities,” the authors wrote. They pointed out that a similar decrease in institutional births was also seen in Liberia during the Ebola epidemic.
  University of South Australia stillbirth researcher Associate Professor Jane Warland has warned that Australia could be facing similar increases in stillbirth rates as woman are discouraged from face-to-face antenatal visits. Professor Warland said in a press release that home visits by midwives and caregivers could be considered during the pandemic, particularly for first-time mothers who are more vulnerable and less likely to be aware of pregnancy issues.
• Want all the COVID-19-related telehealth item numbers in one place? The federal health department has published a comprehensive item number guide and Q&A, covering all the new MBS telehealth item numbers put in place since 13 March 2020 and which are scheduled to continue until September (or longer, if the AMA gets its way).
• Australia’s National COVID-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce wants to hear from Australian healthcare professionals about the guidelines and flowcharts produced by the taskforce, and the website for these resources. If you have 15 minutes free, the survey is here.
• Twenty-one Victorians lost their lives to COVID-19 yesterday – the highest number of daily deaths since the pandemic began. Sixteen of those cases where linked to aged care outbreaks, and included five men in their 90s and a woman aged over 100. COVID-19 has also claimed another life in NSW, of a woman in her 80s whose infection was linked to the Our Lady Of Lebanon church cluster in western Sydney.
  Tasmania also recorded its first new infection in nearly three weeks, in a man who had been receiving medical treatment in Victoria and returned to Tasmania. He had already been admitted to hospital upon his return.
  Here are the latest confirmed COVID-19 infection numbers from around Australia, and I’m now including the absolute increase in each state in brackets. This may differ from the numbers of new infections announced by some states each day, because the overall number of infections is often revised downwards to remove duplicates.
  National – 22127, with 352 deaths and 685 hospitalised
  ACT – 113 (0)
  NSW – 3915 (18)
  NT – 33 (0)
  QLD – 1089 (0)
  SA – 459 (0)
  TAS – 230 (1)
  VIC – 15,646 (395)
  WA – 642 (0)