My father, Dr Abdul Mabud Chowdhury, was an NHS hero who gave his life for this country. He saw at first hand the shortages of PPE for workers treating coronavirus patients. While my father was unwell, he wrote an open letter to the Prime Minister appeali

Ex-physios ‘aren’t being called up’ Top doc warns on ‘useless’ swab kits 40,000 tests in the post was ‘classic Matt’

CARING Dorchester, Dorset, thanks NHS

THE teenage son of a doctor who died after pleading for PPE last night demanded an apology from Health Secretary Matt Hancock.

Dr Abdul Mabud Chowdhury had warned the Government about the lack of personal protective equipment for embattled NHS staff.

The consultant urologist, just 52, was one of more than 166 NHS and social care workers to die after contracting coronavirus.

Today, in an open letter shared with the Sunday Mirror, his heartbroken son Intisar, 18, calls on Mr Hancock to acknowledge his mistakes.

Intisar sends the letter, printed in full on the right, on behalf of his consultant psychiatrist mum Dr Rehana Akther and sister Wareesha, 11, as well as himself.

In it he tells under-fire Mr Hancock: “Do not let my father’s death be in vain.”

Intisar, whose dad worked at Homerton Hospital in Hackney, East London, is also backing the Sunday Mirror’s campaign to reward our healthcare heroes.

We are calling for a special daily allowance to be paid immediately to nurses, doctors, support staff and care workers who are risking their own lives.

Intisar added: “Nurses, doctors, care workers and so many others put their lives on the line every day to save the British public. My father would be proud to support the allowance campaign.”

AS Matt Hancock shamelessly fiddled figures to reach his target of 100,000 coronavirus tests a day on Friday, few who worked with him were surprised.

One ex-colleague of the Health Secretary told us: “It’s classic Matt. He’s as slippery as a bar of soap.”

To save his backside, Hancock brazenly added 40,000 tests “in the post” to 80,000 really taking place.

But with one union calling for his resignation and Labour leader Keir Starmer backing an inquiry into the Government’s handling of the crisis, this spinner may become unspun.

Our insider said: “When the inquest happens, and it will – he’s toast.” Today we trace Hopeless Hancock’s hat-trick of mishaps.

As early as March 16, the

World Health Organisation’s advice was: “Test, test, test.” Yet by the end of that month the UK was testing fewer than 5,000 people a day compared to Germany’s 100,000.

By April 1, we had tested just 2,000 of the 500,000 frontline NHS workers.

Next day grovelling Hancock said “I get it” at the daily briefing, promising 100,000 tests a day by May.

It stunned testing organisers. Doris-Ann Williams, chief of the British In Vitro Diagnostics Association, said: “That target is his, set without industry consultation.

Hancock thought he’d bought himself time, but by relaxing testing restrictions to ramp the numbers up, it caused chaos. On the first day, tests ran out in five minutes. The British Medical Association said the “first come, first served” system was stopping healthcare staff getting tests.

A Tory Party source said Hancock had “told everyone to drop everything to meet a target only designed to save his own skin”.

The failure to locate and secure stocks of lifesaving personal protective equipment can be traced back as far as January 31.

While No. 10 celebrated Brexit, government officials attended EU meetings where countries discussed the need to buy up PPE stocks using the EU’s collective buying power.

Our government did not participate – blaming a missed email.Hancock faced criticism over the lack of equipment and unclear guidance on the use of masks.

On March 23 he admitted the Government faced “challenges” in securing PPE. Five days later surgeons Amged El-Hawrani, 55, and Adil El Tayar, 63, were the first NHS frontline staff to die of the virus.

With NHS staff forced to beg for makeshift PPE from farm workers and even beekeepers Hancock told medics to use equipment as “the precious resource it is”, suggesting staff were wasting items.

A Panorama documentary this