Doctors 'bought DIY Sars masks'

British doctors were forced to buy masks from DIY stores to protect themselves from the deadly Sars virus, it has emerged.

GPs working in Hampshire turned to their local B&Q outlet after the NHS failed to provide them with any masks.

Even now, doctors say they do not have masks which would protect them if they had to treat someone with the virus.

Experts recommended high specification masks to protect against Sars. The so-called FFP2 masks include a valve which protects against the inhalation of potentially harmful substances.

DIY stores sell them for about £5 and they are normally used by people who work with large amounts of toxic chemicals, such as certain paints.

NHS failure

GPs in Hampshire decided to buy these masks after failing to get any supplies from the NHS in the wake of the Sars outbreak.

People bought them and had them in their bag

Dr John Dracass

"Many of the early victims of Sars were medical and nursing professionals," said Dr John Dracass, a GP in Southampton.

"These were healthy men and women. There was considerable concern," he said.

"People bought them and had them in their bag. It might have just saved a life."

Dr Dracass revealed that GPs in the area decided to buy the masks only after first considering carrying out consultations with suspected Sars patients "through the letter box".

"It was one suggestion," he said.

Dr Dracass said that even now doctors in Hampshire did not have the right masks to protect themselves against Sars.

"They are not the right specification," he said. "They are not adequate."

He said it showed how ill-prepared the NHS was to deal with Sars.

"It was very difficult in the first view days to get any information," he said.

"It is a very serious situation."

GPs ill-prepared

Earlier, Dr Dracass called for GPs to be given more information to help them deal with epidemic infections or even a bioterrorist attack.

He told doctors at the British Medical Association's annual conference in Torquay that many GPs were not adequately prepared to deal with such emergencies.

Dr Simon Eccles told the conference that a patient with suspected Sars had to be treated in an ambulance for two hours.

This was because the A&E department at Broomfield Hospital in Essex, like many in the UK, did not have a specially ventilated isolation room.

Dr Eccles, an A&E specialist registrar, warned that NHS hospitals were ill prepared to deal with a bioterrorist attack, such as the Sarin gas attack in Tokyo.

Hospitals there were inundated with thousands of people who were concerned they had been exposed to the gas.

"We in this country are not remotely prepared for any sort of release," he said.

"The general public will panic, of course they will, and we don't have the facilities in place to deal with that."

There should be local contingency plans for each A&E department which have been rehearsed, he said.

The BMA has recently started work on a report which will outline what needs to be done to improve the situation.

"It is a vitally important issue," said Sir David Carter, chairman of the BMA's board of science.

"I think there is an onus on us to get our act in order."