Aidan is yer man on this, but yes, there is a shortage.
In my wife's surgery, they have insufficient face shields. So the nurses on front door duty get them (checking for anyone with Covid19 symptoms), but my wife only has scrubs and a facemask, in part because she wears glasses, which offer some eye protection - if shields were available they would be used.
Ordinary surgical masks are also in short supply, but, as Aidan says, it's probably impossible to maintain things intended for other purposes.
They are sharing out the remaining few face-shields they have by need (not all GPs are seeing patients face-to-face all the time). They have an isolation room set up (expected to become a whole corridor as things worsen), and the staff manning that get priority, obviously.
The other issue is staff who apparently have had the virus returning to work: in the absence of tests they have no idea if people are still infectious (and anyway there's still good old influenza doing the rounds as it does every year), so sharing masks, shields, etc., is tricky. This is the case with at least two of her juniors, and possibly some of the nursing staff, too.
All the GPs there are now switching to scrubs at the beginning of the work day to be on the safe side, and changing back into their own clothes to come home.
At home, we are looking at ways of being isolated from each other, as I'm in a high risk category. Frankly, I think it's only a matter of time before I catch it, and I'm praying I survive, as I haven't really got my affairs in order and I would leave rather a mess for her and the kids to sort out. Steve's seen our place and will no doubt agree on this point
Regarding the kind idea of donating masks, I suspect clear face shields would be preferred for that reason - they are certainly needed locally here. Probably the best thing is to email your surgery if you have spares - easier to process than phoning as they are pretty busy on the switchboards now, having switched as much work as possible to remote.
E.
