'It's going to make a real difference': GTA hospitals to receive protective equipment from China

At the height of the COVID-19 outbreak in China,the Bethune Medical Development Association of Canada donated urgently needed medical supplies to Wuhan, which was at that time the epicentrre of the deadly respiratory illness.

Mere weeks later "the tables have turned" and that act of kindness is being returned more than a thousandfold.

Dr. Lee Errett, the association's president, said the donation of personal protective equipment arrived in Toronto on Friday and delivery to Toronto area hospitals is set for this week.

"We have 50,000 pairs of gloves; 10,000 full gownsto cover all the body for those people on the direct line; we have 30,000 masks and we have 10,000 pairs of goggles," Errett told CBCToronto.

Errett said his association had donated 10,000 N95 masks and threeExtracorporealMembrane Oxygenation (ECMO)machines, plus all the equipment that goes along with them, to Wuhan.

ECMOmachines act as an artificial lung, pumping oxygen in to a patient's blood, giving the respiratory and cardiovascular systems a rest.

The donation, he said, was enough to service 100 patients.

Shortly after the donation was made, Errett said the association received offers from the government of China and the Bank of China to donate the equipment for distribution in Canada.

"What we like about this contribution is it arrived quickly, and the need is right now, so it's going to make a real difference," Errett said.

Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious diseases specialist with the University Health Network, said the donations will take some pressure off front-line workers, but that affect will be temporary.

"The key thing here is figuring out the supply chain, not just for the next week to month, but also for the foreseeable future," he said.

All of the equipment will be delivered to at least five hospitals in the GTA. Errett said while they're working to make the donations as equal as possible among the five hospitals, it will be based on what equipment is needed most, and where.

Over the weekend, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Franois-Philippe Champagne thanked the Bank of China for the donation, saying in a tweet: "In the face of a global pandemic, supporting each other is not only the right thing to do, it's the smart thing to do."