With mounting concerns from health-care providers about the decreasing inventory of N95 masks, a Sudbury doctor is asking anyone with excess masks to donate them.
On March 20, Dr. Lacey Pitre put a callout on Facebook for donations of N95 masks, joining other communities like Windsor and the County of Essex in asking anyone with a surplus for donations. She called it a “request of the utmost importance.”
“Health Sciences North needs N95 masks. Are you a dentist, veterinarian, construction worker? Vale, Glencore? Do you have masks for HSN?”
Vale in Sudbury took note of the post, and said it would donate 500 masks as a result. Several other commenters in the thread said the had a number of maskes they are willing to donate.
HSN said in its daily bulletin a new shipment of N95 masks has arrived at the Ramsey Lake Health Centre, weeks ahead of its expected delivery.
“HSN, like all other hospitals, continues to deal with challenges related to supply of personal protective equipment (PPE),” said a press release. “The province reports that the demand for PPE is six times the normal demand. HSN is in daily contact with provincial supply chains.”
HSN is communicating with businesses, industry and community partners to determine if they have available PPE to provide to HSN, said the bulletin. In light of the community expression of solidarity, HSN has set up an email account they are directing people and organizations to if they can provide assistance with regards to PPE: [email protected].
To help reduce the use of PPE, on March 13, HSN made the decision to cancel elective surgeries and procedures for two weeks. Most Ontario hospitals followed the same approach, which has been recommended by Ontario’s Minister of Health.
On March 20, HSN took the additional step to further restrict all procedures until March 25 to ones that are related to life-threatening and essential emergencies with consideration for patient harm within a 24-hour period.
Meanwhile, media outlets have reported the province is considering using 55 million N95 respirator masks that were stockpiled in Ontario after the SARS epidemic in 2002.
However, N95 masks expire after five years for normal use, though in a crisis situation exceptions for their use could be made.
N95 respirators provide a much higher degree of protection as opposed to surgical masks. It’s unclear about the level of degradation, however, once the masks pass five years post-production.
