Kia Ora BOP Health Care Provider, The Ministry of Health supply chain has contacted us due to some potential concerns about some masks distributed through the National supply chain. Please see their email below for details. The Bay of Plenty DHB have received one shipment of a procedure mask that is in the Ministries’ email. We have identified all providers who have received these masks and are contacting them with instructions. The risk to your patients/clients and staff is very low but we acknowledge that this may cause some concern amongst your team hence we are moving as quickly as we can. The measures being taken by the Ministry are precautionary. At this point the masks in question should be put on hold while we wait for the Ministry to provide further guidance. In the meantime if you require additional masks to replace the ones on hold, the DHB has sufficient supply of alternatives. Please place your order via PPE.ordering@bopdhb.govt.nz , and you will receive certified level 2 substitute masks. Included below are photos of the identified mask. We ask that you please remove these from use, and place on hold in your organisation until we receive further instructions Stop using these masks:
Only use these masks:
The following statement was sent out by Dr Sally Roberts, an infectious disease specialist who has been working with the Ministry of Health’s technical advisory group during the COVID-19 response: “While it is of concern that the Ministry of Health has identified inconsistencies in the labelling and certification of some masks, it is unlikely that the use of these masks would have created major health and safety to healthcare workers. “This is because they were only one part of a suite of infection prevention and control (IPC) interventions that healthcare providers have put in place to manage the risk to staff from SARS-CoV2. Early risk assessment and identification of patients likely to be infected with COVID-19, along with the implementation of IPC best practices reduced this risk significantly. The wearing of PPE is only one component of these measures. “In addition, if these masks were a major problem, we would have expected to have seen staff exposed to SARS-CoV-2 or other infectious diseases during their work shift develop infection; this has not been the case and this should be reassuring to healthcare workers and the public. “In response to their concerns, the Ministry is right to take additional precautionary measures and withdraw the masks from circulation until it can be certain.” If you have any questions please do get in touch. We will contact you again with any updates. Nga mihi Joe Dr Joe Bourne
FRNZCGP|MSc Public Health
EOC Incident Controller – BOPDHB COVID-19 Response Clinical Director of Innovation and Improvement Bay of Plenty District Health Board – www.bopdhb.govt.nz 021 274 8671
joe.bourne@bopdhb.govt.nz
From: Emma.Cozzi@health.govt.nz [mailto:Emma.Cozzi@health.govt.nz] On Behalf Of COVID.HealthSupplyChain@health.govt.nz Sent: Friday, 12 June 2020 1:55 PM To: COVID.HealthSupplyChain@health.govt.nz Subject: *Confidential: Hold notice on some Masks for your urgent attention
Dear Health care provider, The Ministry of Health has identified potential concerns around the quality of some masks distributed from the National Supply Chain. The concerns relate to inconsistencies in labelling and certification. These inconsistencies were discovered as the Ministry enhanced its routine due diligence of PPE coming into New Zealand due to increasing global concern over the authenticity of PPE items. The findings do not mean the items are non-compliant, but that further investigation to confirm the quality is needed. As a precautionary measure we are asking you to identify if you have any of the below items and place these on hold pending further information. You should be able to identify these by checking the manufacturing label that is on the mask.
If you have on-supplied these items, to other users, can you please also forward this notification to them as well. If placing these items on hold, leaves you with a shortage, please place orders via the normal online portal ( healthppe.org ) and we will provide replacement supplies. We will be working with urgency to complete the needed quality assurance checks and enable the compliance status of these items to be confirmed. If you have any questions, please contact Covid.HealthSupplyChain@health.govt.nz Product N95 Mask (or equivalent) N95 Mask (or equivalent) Procedure Mask (or equivalent) Procedure Mask (or equivalent) Procedure Mask (or equivalent)
Kind regards Health Supply Chain Ministry of Health DDI: Mobile: http://www.health.govt.nz
Manufacturing supplier Hangzhou Haoyue Personal Care Co., Ltd Xiamen Jia De Xing Indsutrial Co., Ltd Guangdong Winsun Personal Care Products Henan Yubei Sanitary Materials Co., Ltd. Ningbo Tianbo First Aid Product Co Ltd
Origin country China China China China China