© Provided by The Telegraph The three frontline staff were pictured wearing clinical waste bags on their heads and feet at Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow last month

Three NHS nurses who were forced to wear bin bags due to a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) have all tested positive for coronavirus, The Telegraph has been told.

The three frontline staff were pictured wearing clinical waste bags on their heads and feet at Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow last month. The hospital was the first in the country to declare a critical incident after being overwhelmed by Covid-19 patients.

Frontline staff told how they were contracting the virus from patients because bosses had failed to provide them with proper masks, caps and aprons.

Video: Coronavirus 100 days on: What do we know? (Press Association)

It came as nursing leaders warned that a lack of protective equipment continued to "fundamentally compromise" the care they can give patients, despite repeated assurances from the Government.

_____________________________________________________________



More on this story:

All the latest coronavirus news, views and analysis

Virus killer: Why soap is the ultimate weapon (The Guardian)

How to self-isolate: Key steps to prevent the infection (Vox)

______________________________________________________________



According to a senior source at Northwick Park, the three nurses pictured wearing the bin bags were all diagnosed with coronavirus at a North London testing centre last week.



On one ward, more than 50 per cent of staff, including the matron and ward manager, were found to have contracted the virus, it is understood.

Staff at the hospital have been warned not to speak to the press about continuing shortages of PPE, the source said.

It comes after the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) suggested that the Government could be significantly underestimating the number of medics going off work due to coronavirus.

On Sunday, Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, claimed that only 5.7 per cent of hospital doctors were off sick because of Covid-19, but an RCP survey of more than 2,500 frontline workers found the rate was actually 14.6 per cent.

Officials have said millions of pieces of kit have been distributed and a hotline has been established to help frontline staff get PPE where it is needed most.

© Provided by The Telegraph A nurse wears bin bags on her feet because of a lack of PPE equipment

According to the Royal College of Nursing's chief executive and general secretary, Dame Donna Kinnair, however, nurses are still being forced to share equipment, buy their own or reuse kit.

In a letter to the parliamentary health committee chairman and former Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, Dame Donna said nurses are being forced to choose between their sense of duty and the safety of themselves and their families.

"Nursing staff are at the front line of the Covid-19 pandemic," she wrote in the letter, dated April 6. "Our safety and ability to care for patients is being fundamentally compromised by the lack of adequate and correct supplies of vital personal protective equipment and the slow and small-scale roll-out of Covid-19 testing.



"Our members are facing impossible decisions between their own or their family's health and their sense of duty."

A spokesman for London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs Northwick Park Hospital, said: "We can confirm that a number of staff members working in our Covid-19 positive areas have tested positive for the coronavirus.

"This is unfortunate but not unexpected, as it corresponds with the experience of healthcare workers across the world. We are providing full support to those of our staff members who become unwell, and wish them a swift recovery."

Responding to suggestions that staff had been prevented from speaking out about shortages of PPE, the spokesman said: "We are actively working to support staff to raise concerns through the appropriate trust channels."

Stay at home to stop coronavirus spreading - here is what you can and can't do. If you think you have the virus, don't go to the GP or hospital, stay indoors and get advice online. Only call NHS 111 if you cannot cope with your symptoms at home; your condition gets worse; or your symptoms do not get better after seven days. In parts of Wales where 111 isn't available, call NHS Direct on 0845 46 47. In Scotland, anyone with symptoms is advised to self-isolate for seven days. In Northern Ireland, call your GP.