THUNDER BAY – Massive worldwide demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) and sanitizing supplies continues to cause headaches – but the situation is improving, reports a purchaser at Thunder Bay’s regional hospital.
Things are “a lot better” than during the heat of the pandemic in Canada in March and April, said Tammy Eckman, a stores keeper with the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre.
“We’re still waiting for products, but we have enough ins with other companies that it’s taking the stress levels off,” she explained during a recent COVID-19 situation report from the hospital.
Purchasers had to get creative in the early days of the pandemic when the institution’s usual supply lines ran dry.
“When COVID-19 started, all the orders started coming back as ‘not available,’ so we’d have to go out and find other products that were similar and COVID-approved,” Eckman said. “Sometimes that’s not the easiest thing to find, because every company is in the same position.”
The hardest item to come by during that time wasn’t masks or gloves, she related, but sanitizing wipes. That’s largely because the hospital can only use certain types of wipes on equipment like CT scanners and dialysis machines.
“It was very stressful at times – it may not sound like a very important item, but it is,” she said. “If you use any wipe that’s not allowed on those machines, the warranty is no longer valid.”
The hospital’s more visible frontline services rely on the behind-the-scenes work of those like Eckman, stressed communications director Tracie Smith.
“If you can’t get those wipes, then we can’t use that equipment,” she said. “If you can’t get that PPE, then we can’t provide the care.”
