AN OXFORD doctor has said she 'doesn't feel ready' to treat Covid-19 patients due to a lack of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) during training.

Dr Hosnieh Djafari-Marbini, who works as an anaesthetist at the Churchill Hospital, raised the alarm about a lack of PPE during a session this morning.

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The doctor, who usually works with cancer patients, has volunteered to work in the John Radcliffe Hospital's intensive care ward and, along with all clinical staff at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, is receiving specialist training.

In a tweet today she wrote: "PPE simulation training this morn: we don’t have the appropriate equipment to practise with.

"Training 12k staff takes time. We could potentially infect huge numbers."

Addressing Prime Minister Boris Johnson she added: "We need to be able to keep our staff, and loved ones safe. Please address URGENTLY." 

In a subsequent tweet she added: "We are professionals trying to do our best but this is so so worrying."

Speaking the Oxford Mail, the anaethestist, who is also a Labour city councillor, explained putting on the correct protective equipment could take 'up to 10 minutes' - all while a patient may be struggling for oxygen and need to be intubated.

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She said: "Time is of the essence and it needs to be streamlined but that's impossible without the opportunity to practice."

Dr Djafari-Marbini said she had received simulation training this morning but had been forced to use 'makeshift' equipment, such as regular surgical gowns which have a different way of being removed and normal face masks.

She said: "The first thing you are supposed to do is check you have all the right equipment, but we didn't.

"I don't feel confident. I don't feel ready."

She added she worried this would put patients, her loved ones and anyone else she came into contact with at risk.

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NHS England announced on Monday over the previous three days more than 200 organisations, including all NHS hospitals, received fresh supplies of facemasks and other PPE along with ambulance trusts and other NHS organisations.

It came following NHS staff complaining they felt lives were being put in danger due to a lack of protective gear.

Health secretary Matt Hancock has admitted there had been 'challeneges' but that the government was 'determined' to get the right resources to frontline staff.

The Oxford hospital trust has been contacted for comment.