UK missed three chances to join EU bulk PPE order
THE UK missed three chances to be part of an EU scheme to bulk buy personal protective equipment (PPE) for health workers, according to reports.
Britain failed to utilise opportunities to get items such as masks, gowns and gloves under an EU initiative, the Guardian stated.
The availability of PPE has been a major issue in the coronavirus outbreak.
European medical staff are set to receive the first of £1.3 billion-worth of PPE within days or a maximum of two weeks under the EU scheme involving 25 countries, according to the Guardian.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: "We are working round the clock with industry, the NHS, social care providers and the army to ensure the supply of PPE over the coming weeks and months and will give our NHS and the social care sector everything they need to tackle this pandemic - including working with countries around the globe.
"We are also working with a number of firms to scale up production of existing UK ventilator manufacturers, as well as designing and manufacturing new products from scratch, and procuring thousands more machines from overseas.
"We will continue to work with European countries and others in order to make sure that we can increase the capacity within the NHS, and we will consider participating in future EU joint procurement schemes on the basis of public health requirements at the time."
At the daily Downing Street briefing on the coronavirus emergency on Monday, First Secretary of State and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the Government was trying to give frontline staff reassurance over PPE.
The comments came amid concern over a shortage of some supplies in parts of the country.
Mr Raab said: "We understand the importance of getting PPE to the frontline whether it's in care homes or the NHS.
"I think the strongest practical reassurance they will want and that we can give them is that over the Bank Holiday weekend over 16 million items were delivered and we are straining every sinew to roll them out even further and even faster."
Forced to reuse disposable equipment
Doctors are being forced to wash personal protective equipment (PPE) to reuse it and are dipping their hands in a bucket of steriliser because hand gel has run out.
Comments gathered by the British Medical Association (BMA) show how, as recently as Monday, medics were being forced to work without adequate PPE, with some turning to bin liners instead.
Meanwhile, a carer told LBC radio she was wearing swimming goggles due to a lack of PPE.
Some doctors have been told by their NHS trusts to reuse gowns and some have donated their share of PPE to nurses and healthcare assistants due to shortages.
On Monday, an obstetrics and gynaecology trainee in the South East said there has been no eye protection for the last three weeks and there were no facilities to clean footwear.
On the same day, an anaesthetics trainee in Scotland said: "We're having to wash our visors in disinfectant because we don't have enough.
"We also ran out of hand gel briefly and were provided with a bucket of steriliser to dip our hands in."
A core medicine trainee in the East of England said: "Trust is now asking us reuse singleuse gowns not only between patients but also when we leave and return from breaks."
A foundation year doctor on a Covid-19 ward for the elderly in the North West said on Monday: "After the death of two of our nursing colleagues, the trust, on the same day, announced that gowns would no longer be amply provided, and we had to ration the remaining supplies amongst our staff, on our ward.
Meanwhile, an A&E doctor in the East of England said there were no gowns or scrubs on their most recent shift.
A GP from Berkshire said: "Unable to get basic PPE apart from aprons and gloves. Some surgical masks, no eye protection. We managed to buy 50 visors before the rush, and had six pairs of safety glasses left from the swine flu epidemic, which the nurses are using as they have closest contact with patients. They wash and reuse these after each session.
"Our local amateur dramatics group is making us scrubs for use in the 'hot hub' where we are seeing likely Covid patients to assess if they need hospital admission."
Downing Street said it was "right that where possible strategies optimising the supply of PPE can be explored".
"We understand that the Health and Safety Executive and Public Health England are continuing to discuss ways in which pressure can be eased on the supply chain, including potential of reusing certain equipment, but only where it is safe to do so," the Prime Minister's official spokesman said.
He said that more than 923 million pieces of PPE have been delivered in total to NHS trusts and care homes.