An Indian-origin husband-wife doctor couple have launched judicial review proceedings to the UK government over what they have to say is usually a refusal to treat safety issues around personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare and doctors workers throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
Dr Nishant Joshi and the pregnant wife, Dr Meenal Viz, had initiated the legal action in April accompanied by a pre-action letter seeking answers within the UK’s Department of Social and Health Public and Care Health England. They thought to push ahead together with the case inside the High Court inside london on Wednesday when they feel they may be “no longer in a position to wait”.
“We don’t strive to be the process. We didn’t consider the process. We’re doctors in the pandemic. We wish to look at saving lives and stitching this country back together again,” the pair said in any statement.
“But we now have been pushed into taking action by the government’s refusal to treat the issues we now have raised,” they said.
Their law office, Bindmans, said the judicial review challenge highlights the “mismatch” between the government’s guidance on PPE together with the guidance lay out by your World Health Organisation (WHO), including in respect of when “full” PPE is required, along with with respect to the reuse and reprocessing of PPE – including items such surgical gowns, face visors and gloves. The doctors’ case claims that your government’s guidance also fails properly to warn healthcare and social care workers for the risks they face with different varieties of PPE along with their legal rights to refuse to focus when inadequate PPE is available.
They, along with all other health and social care workers, remain entitled to lawful and transparent guidance on the use of PPE and the risks they are facing on the frontline of responding to this national crisis,” said Jamie Potter, Partner at Bindmans LLP and solicitor for Dr Viz and Dr Joshi, although “As frontline doctors, Dr Viz and Dr Joshi understand the operational pressures faced by government better than most.
“Accordingly, we now have today [Wednesday] filed judicial review proceedings desiring to challenge that guidance having a view to bringing into line with WHO guidance combined with human rights legislation. This is important not just in the current crisis, but also to any ‘second spike’ or future pandemic,” he said.
The pair highlight that your disproportionate number of the COVID-19 victims come from ethnic minority backgrounds, plus the challenge also raises the government’s failure properly to take into account the effects on Asian, minority and black ethnic (BAME) health and social care workers round the state-funded National Health Service (NHS). “The government have likewise refused allowing Dr Viz and Dr Joshi to publish their initial responses towards pre-action correspondence to make sure that others can look at the adequacy from the technique of PPE. Our clients will push in a proceedings to assure such documents are created public,” their law office said.
The couple’s online crowdfunding initiative for that legal case has raised over 61,000 pounds in pledges. Viz, who seems to be eight months pregnant, has additionally been leading protests outside Downing Street and recently her and she colleagues observed a 237-second silence – one second for each and every healthcare worker who died from the series of duty during this pandemic throughout the uk.
The Department of Health stated it cannot reply to “ongoing legal proceedings” but has up to now stressed that safety factors have been thought of along with its guidance. PTI AK PMS RS