SAN DIEGO — We've heard a lot from health care workers on the front lines about the scarcity of personal protective equipment or PPE's like masks and lack of testing.
A group of passionate San Diego doctors are doing something about it to make sure their voices are heard and concerns are addressed.
Dr. Milla Kviatkovsky, a board certified internal medicine physician working at UC San Diego Health, founded the healthcare worker advocacy group at www.frontlineppenow.
The goal is to share the stories of health care workers and let them know they're not alone. They're also advocating for change on the government level, state and federal. Kviatkovsky says our healthcare workers are a resource we need to protect and continue to provide them with what they need.
"We really need to be on top of it and continue to bring supplies to the areas that are hardest hit, even if you get 200 million N95 masks today these hospitals are using these masks at a rate they've never used before. There needs to be an ongoing stream of supplies going to the hardest hit areas around the country," said Kviatkovsky.
Kviatkovsky says her organization has also started working with other organizations that have sprung up since the pandemic. They're collecting data across the nation to make sure the PPE's are going to areas hardest hit and in need at the time. FronlinePPENow is connecting their supporters with those organizations.
Dr. Kviatkovsky and two of her colleagues have also started a petition calling for better protection of health care workers. It has more than 1.6 million signatures on change.org.