PPE shortages

Gill Turner (Letters, 2 July) objects to Scotsman journalist Gina Davidson's statement quoted in my letter referring to shortagesofppe.msdavidson is basing her statement on evidence and not wishful thinking.

If Ms Turner would take the time to read the Audit Scotland report she will find that the word "shortages" is there for all to see – not “reinstated unilaterally” by me.

I did not say the word had been removed but that Audit Scotland had resisted SNP pressure to remove it.

The report quotes evidence from medical workers responding to surveys by the

Royal College of Nursing and the British Medical Association. Of the Scottish respondents 47 per cent reported being asked to reuse single use PPE and 29 per cent reported "shortages" of full-face visors. These are examples of evidence which is indisputable.

Ms Turner has now changed her tune to the SNP mantra that the "country" never “ran out” of PPE, which is not the point and not what I claimed.

If there were sufficient supplies in institutions elsewhere in the country it would have been of little comfort to the unfortunate medical staff referred to above who were working heroically on a daily basis with shortages of equipment.

Would Ms Turner agree that the best way to determine if it is a "myth" that there were shortages is to rely on the evidence from the frontline workers and not a version of it from the SNP spin machine?

And the best way to do that is via an independent judge-led public inquiry.

COLIN HAMILTON

Edinburgh