'One mask can save one life': Businesses donating protective gear to London health clinics in need

Businesses in London are donating their stock of personal protective equipment to frontline healthcare workers who are facing a shortage of masks, gloves and hygiene supplies needed to interact with possible COVID-19 cases.

Dr. Mario Elia, a family doctor in London, said he and a team of ten physicians at the London Lambeth Medical Clinic are quickly burning through their supply of protective gear, and he's spoken to smaller practices that are in more "dire straits."

Although he's consulting many of his patients over the phone, Dr. Elia said each doctor at the clinic has been meeting with up to five patients a day who have runny noses, sore throats, other possible virus symptoms or a history of travel.

"We're actually seeing them at a bit of a drive through set up," he explained. "The doctor dons the entire gear, goes out to the patient at the car and examines them while they're still in their car."

With a supply of only 200 masks, 200 face shields and 100 gowns as of Wednesday evening, Elia said they're concerned about depleting their stock in the short term.

"We want to be able to keep these physicians seeing patients in the community so they're not re-directed to emerg [or] to the assessment centre," said Elia.

"If family docs aren't able to do that … emergency wait times will increase, people going to emergency for non-COVID-19 related reasons are going to be waiting longer."

A team of doctors and healthcare workers are calling on businesses that are closed or offering limited services amid the pandemic, such as dentists, tattoo parlours and spas to donate goods that wouldn't otherwise be used during the next few weeks.

The initiative is driven by the London Middlesex Primary Care Alliance.  

Dr. Colin Dombroski, who owns a footwear and orthotics business in London, spent part of Wednesday picking up donations and bringing them to the Thames Valley Family Health Team's corporate support office in Hyde Park, which has become a drop off and distribution centre for supplies.

"When this whole thing began earlier in the year we of course called our suppliers and began getting supplies," he explained. "Now that we're shut down, having those supplies sitting on a shelf don't help anybody."

His company, SoleScience, donated its supply of 90 face masks, 10 boxes of gloves, a bunch of face shields and a couple bottles of hand sanitizer.

"If you have more than you need, we would love to see that in the hands of our frontline workers," he said. "One mask can save one life, it's as simple as that."

WANT TO DONATE?

Email the Thames Valley Family Health Team's transformation lead, Janet Dang: janet.dang@thamesvalleyfht.ca