An Oakland nurse who wore a trash bag as protective equipment while at work has been fired, highlighting growing tensions at hospitals over allocations of masks, gowns and other gear as health systems stock up for an expected surge in patients infected with the coronavirus.

A photo of Saber Alaoui, a nurse in the telemetry unit at Highland Hospital in Oakland, drew widespread attention after it circulated on social media in recent weeks. Alaoui believes he was fired in retaliation after his union representative posted the photo on Twitter in late March in a move to highlight the need for proper protective equipment at the hospital.

Alaoui said his manager claimed he had failed to administer medication to a patient and properly document it, a charge he denies. He said he had been offered a promotion around the time of the posting and described as false the hospital’s claims of unsatisfactory performance as the reason for his firing.

“The employee was terminated during his initial hire probationary period,” Terry Lightfoot, the director of public affairs and community engagement for the Alameda Health System, a public health system of which Highland Hospital is a part, wrote in an email. “The manager who made the decision was not aware of any actions taken by the employee related to concerns over availability of personal protective equipment.”

Alaoui said he did not administer medication to a patient whom he had previously seen suffer an adverse reaction to it, and he had documented the issue.

Shortly thereafter a photo of Alaoui wearing a protective mask and a clear trash bag was posted on Twitter. Alaoui said he cut holes in the bag himself to wear since disposable surgical gowns were in short supply and were being reserved for staff treating COVID-19 patients. The patient he was treating had a different infectious disease, he said.

The Alameda Health System also said in a statement that the SEIU 1021 union, which represents nurses at the hospital, was attempting to “conflate labor negotiations with a public health crisis” by painting the firing as retaliatory. The agency said it was false that a nurse had been fired over concerns regarding availability of personal protective equipment.

“We’ve been in a fight with (the system) about equipment and staffing for a long time,” said John Pearson, an emergency room nurse at Highland and president of the Alameda Health System SEIU chapter. “It’s really gotten accelerated because of the crisis.” Pearson was the representative who posted the photo of Alaoui on Twitter.

He added that during the shift where Alaoui wore the trash bag, nurses were told to use cloth gowns intended for patients, which “are not appropriate for keeping body fluids off you.”

Pearson said he is concerned about the system’s claims that it has enough protective equipment for nurses like him and other frontline medical workers. “If they have enough, why are they locking it up and withholding it from us?” he asked. He said the hospital had been rationing essential equipment like disinfecting wipes and that gowns had been in limited supply during a Monday shift.

Jim Morrissey, an Alameda County health official, said in an email that the system had “everything they requested in terms of masks and gowns.” The system has received 1,500 gowns, 51,000 masks and 100 gallons of hand sanitizer, he said, adding that it had been furnished with 2,400 of 6,700 requested plastic face shields.

Chase DiFeliciantonio is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: chase.difeliciantonio@

sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ChaseDiFelice