Home Secretary ‘sorry if people feel there have been failings over PPE supply’

Home Secretary Priti Patel has said she was sorry if anyone felt there had been failings over the supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) for health workers in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

Her comments came as the UK death toll approached 10,000 and NHS trusts confirmed the deaths of more health workers, after health Secretary Matt Hancock earlier paid tribute to 19 NHS staff who died after contracting Covid-19.

Sara Trollope, a matron for older adult mental health services in Hillingdon, west London, died after testing positive for the virus and Julie Omar, 52, a trauma and orthopaedics nurse at Redditch’s Alexandra Hospital, in Worcestershire, died at home while self-isolating with symptoms.

The Government has been dogged by criticism since the pandemic hit UK shores that not enough PPE was available for health workers, especially those working in social care.

The Liberal Democrats said the issue was developing into a “national scandal”.

Ms Patel, fielding questions at a Downing Street briefing on Saturday, said she was “sorry” if people felt there had been failings regarding the supply of PPE.

After being asked twice if she would apologise to NHS staff and their families over supplies of PPE, Ms Patel said: “I’m sorry if people feel that there have been failings. I will be very, very clear about that.

“But at the same time, we are in an unprecedented global health pandemic right now.

“It is inevitable that the demand and the pressures on PPE and demand for PPE are going to be exponential. They are going to be incredibly high.

“And of course we are trying to address that as a Government.”

NHS England medical director Stephen Powis said he was confident there would be enough hi-tech FFP3 masks available to cover the length of the pandemic.

He also said officials were “working very hard” on gown supplies, the use of which has been extended in light of last week’s updated guidance.

Ms Patel said distribution issues had been addressed with the help of the military, and the Ministry of Defence said a consignment of 250,000 items of PPE had been delivered to RAF Brize Norton from Turkey on Friday.

Mr Hancock, in an earlier interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, said the guidelines now advise staff to use gowns for their whole shift but stressed he did not “impugn blame” on any health workers who had used more than “strictly necessary”.

Sir Ed Davey, acting leader of the Lib Dems, was critical of the Government’s response on PPE, which has seen the Army mobilised to distribute more than 760 million items across the country.

“The lack of sufficient protective equipment is becoming a national scandal – many health and care staff clearly feel they’ve been sold down the river,” he said.

Also announced at the press conference:

– Prime Minister Boris Johnson has Cabinet support to spend time convalescing in hospital following his coronavirus diagnosis

– The Home Office has set aside £2 million of funding for domestic abuse charities, along with setting up a public awareness campaign to help victims

– Ministers have held discussions about how to reopen Parliament following its Easter break but the focus remains on “saving lives”

– The UK is “still in round one” of the fight against coronavirus, with a vaccine expected to “take months to develop”

Police have also revealed that 1,084 on-the-spot fines have been issued for breaches of coronavirus regulations in England and Wales.

Martin Hewitt, chairman of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, said only a “small minority” had failed to follow the Government guidance.

Mr Johnson announced a lockdown three weeks ago that banned travel outside of the home, except for exercise, to shop for essential goods, to go to a job that cannot be done from home or to provide care.

The fines were issued by 37 forces, Mr Hewitt said, with a 21% fall in overall crime.

The announcement came after some forces were criticised for being heavy-handed in using beefed-up enforcement powers, with backlash on social media against the use of drones to patrol beauty spots and officers seen monitoring supermarket aisles.

“Across all of those forces, that is an average of less than 84 a day,” Mr Hewitt told the press briefing.

“This shows that the overwhelming majority of people are abiding by the rules and are staying at home to protect the NHS and save lives.”

Mr Hewitt said police will publish enforcement data every fortnight during the crisis and defended forces that had “made mistakes”, saying they had “quickly sought to correct them”.

Ministers have so far ruled out putting a date on when the restrictions on movement and social contact will be curbed, with Mr Hancock and Ms Patel stressing the need for people to remain at home even during the good bank holiday weekend weather.

The Department of Health said a total of 9,875 people had died in hospital in the UK after testing positive for coronavirus as of 5pm on Friday, up by 917 from the same point on Thursday.

Mr Johnson is continuing to recover following his discharge from the intensive care unit at St Thomas’ Hospital where he was treated for coronavirus.

Number 10 has refused to be drawn on how long he is expected to remain in hospital.