HEALTHCARE workers are being forced to smuggle much-needed essential protective equipment into hospitals to help keep them safe, it has been claimed.

A group in Powys creating PPE, including face visors, has been banned from providing doctors, nurses and carers with equipment because they haven’t been given an official approval or a CE mark.

And it has been alleged healthcare workers have been told they face disciplinary action by their bosses if they accept or use any PPE donations.

Adam Todarides, who is leading the Crowd PPE Powys Group based at Christ College, said he and his team are very frustrated that the equipment they have been making isn’t being used.

He revealed that he is sitting on some 4,000 items of PPE - with that number expected to double next week - and cannot get it out to people who desperately need it.

England and other countries across the globe have been accepting PPE donations from kind-hearted residents, but it has been alleged that the Welsh Government has written to all health boards telling them not to take any PPE.

He complained: “It is all down to the Welsh Government’s stupidity. It is a big pile of burning horse poo."

Read the full story in this week’s Brecon & Radnor Express.