A hospital worker holds up a piece of paper with the names of her colleagues who have died from coronavirus. Photos / AP
A hospital worker holds up a piece of paper with the names of her colleagues who have died from coronavirus. Photos / AP
Claims that a billion pieces of personal protective equipment have been delivered to the NHS are under scrutiny as it emerged the Government is counting each single glove as one item.
Amid growing concern over the death of health and social care workers, ministers have repeatedly promised that huge amounts of protective equipment has made its way to the front line.
However, officials last night failed to explain why their actual figures were almost 150 million items short of their billion claim or why they were counting gloves individually.
It came amid protests over a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) as hospitals held a minute's silence in honour of the 85 NHS workers and 19 social care workers who have lost their lives to Covid-19.
One banner, outside St Thomas' hospital where Boris Johnson was treated for coronavirus, read: "We are not disposable. Nobody goes to work to die."
Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson stands inside 10 Downing Street, London, during a minute's silence to pay tribute to workers who have died during the outbreak.
The Government insisted that the required kit was available.
Johnson used his first meeting of the Covid-19 war Cabinet since his recovery from coronavirus to focus on the need to secure supplies.
Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, told the Downing Street press conference that they were moving "heaven and earth" to ensure supplies were getting to the front line and the systems were getting stronger every day.
But in the latest procurement farce an investigation by BBC's Panorama found the billion items frequently quoted by ministers includes items not usually classed as PPE including cleaning equipment, waste bags, detergent and paper towels.
More than half of those items are surgical gloves, often counted individually rather than in pairs, and the second biggest item is plastic aprons which provide little protection.
The investigation by BBC Panorama found that vital items were left out of the stockpile when it was set up in 2009 and that the government subsequently ignored a warning from its own advisers to buy missing equipmenthttps://t.co/E0Qgq524pg
When Victoria Atkins, the minister for safeguarding, was pushed yesterday on whether they had been double counting with single gloves, she said: "I have got a box of gloves at home and they are not in pairs."
She refused to be "drawn into the detail of these figures" but said that there is a "huge national effort" to get equipment where it is needed.
When asked in a later interview on BBC Radio 4's Today programme whether the PPE numbers were "exaggerated", she replied: "We are absolutely led by the scientific evidence throughout this and we are being transparent with the public."
Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, was later questioned on the same point in the Commons and said the Government has distributed 143 million masks, 163 million aprons, 1.8 million gowns and 547 million gloves.
But he and the Department of Health failed to explain why that only adds up to 854.8 million, even with single gloves counted as whole items.
Panorama's discovered the government failed to buy crucial protective equipment it needed to prepare for a pandemic.
The Panorama investigation also revealed that when setting up a stockpile in 2009 the Government failed to buy enough masks, gowns, visors and swab tests to deal with a pandemic.
They also apparently ignored their own advisory panel on new and emerging respiratory virus threats, known as Nervtag, when it suggested gowns should be purchased last June.
Professor John Ashton, a public health expert who has previously criticised the Government's approach, said the failure to stockpile some items meant NHS staff were working without crucial equipment.
"The consequence of not planning, not ordering kit, not having stockpiles, is that we are sending into the frontline doctors, nurses, other health workers and social care workers without the equipment to keep them safe," he said.
Britain is to build a stockpile of face masks for people to wear while shopping and on public transport, it was announced, after Nicola Sturgeon pre-empted what is expected to be UK-wide guidance https://t.co/RKBOghh7WG
The Royal College of Physicians has found that 27 per cent of doctors are re-using kit while many hospitals and care homes have revealed that they are having to buy or make their own.
Ed Bradley, the founder of Virtualstock, said there is availability but the national supply chain which hospital trusts normally use is overloaded.
Alongside NHS Shared Business Services he runs The Edge4Health, a virtual market place which allows healthcare providers to order PPE directly from companies. They are currently working with about 140 NHS trusts.
"There are a lot of suppliers in the country who could cater for the demand and fulfil many of the care homes requirements, which are a lot smaller. But it is linking up supply and demand."
