A physician at Montefiore Medical Center in New York claims she was handed a bag of personal protective equipment that included a plastic rain poncho in place of a medical gown, according to The New York Times. But the hospital has said it was intended as a gift, for personal use.
On March 21, the obstetrician-gynecologist resident tweeted a picture of the poncho, adding" I'm a physician at a hospital in NYC and THIS IS THE 'PPE' I WAS JUST HANDED for my shift. Our federal government has completely failed its health care workers. #GetUsPPE"
In a statement issued April 1, the hospital said it "received a very generous donation of 2,500 ponchos from our Bronx neighbors and friends the New York Yankees," the Times reports.
They distributed the ponchos on a first-come, first-served basis. "This was a gift intended for their personal use," the hospital said.
But four other hospital employees, who spoke to the Times on the condition of anonymity, said they had received the bags containing ponchos and were told to use the items in the bags as protective gear. They all reused old gown or used emergency supplies, refusing to wear the ponchos as protective gear.
The Yankees declined to comment, but a team executive who spoke to the Times, also on the condition of anonymity, said the team received a request from someone at the hospital recently, asking specifically for ponchos.
Montefiore distributed a new set of personal protective equipment April 1, according to an email from the hospital's chief of neurology to the staff obtained by the Times.
More than 375 of about 17,000 hospital employees had tested positive for the new coronavirus, as of April 2, an internal email obtained by the Times, shows.