Covid-19: Ministers attacked over PPE shortages

Organisations representing hospital trusts have rounded on the Government over its promise of more personal protective equipment (PPE) to protect workers in the fight against Covid-19.

Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, said there was "relatively low confidence" that a shipment of 400,000 surgical gowns which had been due to arrive in the UK from Turkey on Sunday would make its way into the country on Monday.

The lack of PPE remains a dominant issue for NHS staff, as hospitals are forced into workarounds, including washing equipment and asking workers to accept wearing less protective gear.

The NHS Confederation, which represents organisations across healthcare, has also reacted angrily to Government promises of more PPE, saying delays on the shipment from Turkey "makes a difficult situation worse".

Its chief executive, Niall Dickson, said: "It would have been better had the Government not made the announcement in the first place" and said staff would need to make their own assessment over whether they felt safe with the PPE currently on offer.

Mr Hopson told Radio 4's Today programme that it was wrong to focus on individual consignments of PPE because "bitter experience over the last few weeks" has shown they cannot be relied upon, with some boxes containing the wrong items and thousands of pieces missing.

"So rather than being marched up to the top of the hill and being marched back down again, let's just focus on what we know we can be certain of," he said.

"Let's not focus on individual consignments, let's try and get as quickly as possible to a sustainable supply of these gowns.

"There's no doubt that at the moment, we have now got trusts that have definitely got shortages of gowns."

Mr Hopson said trusts were reserving the stock of fluid-resistant gowns they do have for areas of high clinical risk, such as intensive care units, and using workarounds in other areas.

"There's one trust that's basically discovered that if you launder those gowns at 60 degrees ... there's probably up to three times that you can do that, and the gowns appear to still be fully fluid-repellent," he said.

While there had been many problems with consignments from abroad failing and the wrong items being sent, Mr Hopson said: "I suppose the question that we will need to ask whether this is over, is actually: was the pandemic stock reserve that was meant to tide us over, was it correctly configured?"

The NHS is thought to use around 150,000 gowns a day, meaning the stock from Turkey would last less than three days.

Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said he was hopeful the gowns would still arrive, telling BBC One's Breakfast programme: "We are very hopeful that later today that flight will take off and we will get those gowns.

"We are working very hard to resolve this, there have been challenges at the Turkish end.

"I don't want to start making more and more promises but I understand that that flight will take off this afternoon and they will be delivered."

Another 25 million gowns from China had been procured and the UK would be "getting those shortly as well", he said.

This comes as:

– Professor Sarah Gilbert from the University of Oxford, who is leading a team developing a Covid-19 vaccine, said the Government's chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance's comments that all vaccines were "long shots" did not pour cold water over her work. She added: "We have always said this will not be the only vaccine", adding that around 140 were in development worldwide.

– Mr Dowden defended Prime Minister Boris Johnson's absence from several emergency Government meetings in the early stages of the battle against Covid-19. Mr Dowden said: "It is perfectly normal for other ministers, appropriate secretaries of state, to chair Cobra. The Prime Minister was being briefed on an hourly and daily basis, took a very close personal interest in this and clearly, as the crisis progressed, he then took over chairing."

– Asked about Mr Johnson's reported reluctance to end the lockdown soon, a Number 10 source told the PA news agency: "(The) PM is very concerned about a second peak if we lift the restrictions too soon."

– The Government has denied there are any plans for schools in England to reopen soon, with Education Secretary Gavin Williamson saying on Sunday there was no set date for pupils to go back.

Meanwhile, the Government scheme for workers who have been furloughed – given a temporary leave of absence – has launched, and Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced a £1.25 billion package to aid companies in the innovation sector.

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme allows businesses to claim towards staff wages and comes after the Government was warned of the economic cost for many companies of any delay in its implementation.

Under the initiative, employers can go online to claim cash grants worth up to 80% of wages, capped at £2,500 a month per worker.

The Treasury has said the system can process up to 450,000 applications an hour with employers expected to receive the money within six working days of an application.

The number of hospital deaths of people who tested positive for Covid-19 has now passed 16,000, with a further 596 announced on Sunday. The figure does not include those who died in care homes.