Professor Joe Harrison, Chief Executive of Milton Keynes Hospital, has said that the hospital has sufficient levels of PPE and is not suffering any major staff shortages at the minute.
In an exclusive interview with MKFM, Professor Harrison said that the hospital is coping "very well" with the demand for services due to the coronavirus pandemic.
"They [the staff] are obviously very busy," he said. "But, I think we are both looking after each other, looking after our families, and also, most importantly, looking after the patients in our hospital at the moment."
Currently, there is a global shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE). Many organisations are struggling to get sufficient PPE, however, Professor Harrison has said that the level of equipment at the hospital is "okay".
He added: "The [level of] protective equipment here at Milton Keynes Hospital is okay. We know that different parts of the healthcare system have struggled to get some bits of equipment, but certainly within the hospital we have the right PPE for the different levels of looking after our patients. So, at the moment, we are fine."
Healthcare staff who are heavily exposed to coronavirus patients are subsequently at higher risk of catching the virus. As a result, many organisations, including care homes, have suffered staff shortages.
When asked about whether Milton Keynes Hospital has been impacted by the number of staff having to self-isolate, Professor Harrison said there haven't been any "major shortages" so far.
He continued: "What we're seeing is [that] a number of individual staff members have had to either isolate because of their family member has shown symptoms, or indeed have shown symptoms themselves. We have been relatively lucky that despite having quite a number of staff off, we have been able to continue with all of our essential services here and we haven't seen any major staff shortages which is great.
"We are also seeing another number of staff now coming back to work who have done their self-isolation and coming back and joining the team which is a really helpful boost."
