YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED
Medical chief hits out as panic buyers strip store shelves bare, leaving NHS staff short
VIRUS crisis panic buyers “should be ashamed” for causing needless shortages for NHS staff as the retail industry insisted there was enough food for everyone and ministers said rationing was unnecessary.
Environment Secretary George Eustice said there was no shortage of food in the country amid the coronavirus pandemic, with manufacturers having increased production by 50%.
At the daily Downing Street press conference, NHS England national medical director Stephen Powis said the country should be ashamed that key medical staff were left unable to buy food at the end of their shifts.
Mr Eustice said people buying more than they needed meant key NHS workers fighting the disease were faced with empty shelves when they tried to shop.
He said the message to the public was: “Be responsible when you shop and think of others.
“Buying more than you need means others may be left without. We all have a role to play in ensuring we all come through this together.”
Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, said there was “plenty of food” in the supply chain.
“The issue is around people and lorries, so getting that food right into the front line onto our shelves, which is why we’ve seen some shortages,” she said. “There is a billion pounds’ more food in people’s houses than there was three weeks ago, so we should make sure we eat some of it.”
It comes after critical care nurse Dawn Bilbrough, from York, made a heartfelt plea for shoppers to stop stockpiling, in a video which circulated on social media on Thursday.
In the video, she is seen crying after visiting a supermarket following a 48-hour hospital shift to find there were no fruit or vegetables.
Stephen Powis, national medical director at NHS England, urged people to think of struggling NHS staff.
“I would like to make a plea on behalf of all my colleagues in the NHS, nurses, doctors, paramedics and many, many others who are working incredibly hard at the moment to manage this outbreak of coronavirus,” he said.
“It’s incredibly important that they too have access to food, to those essential supplies that they need.”
“Frankly we should all be ashamed that that has to happen – it’s unacceptable. These are the very people that we all need to look after perhaps us or our loved ones in the weeks to come.”
Mr Eustice played down the prospect of the Government imposing rationing, saying ministers’ preference was to leave it to the retailers to decide whether purchases should be limited.
“The reality is that most of the supermarkets are already, of their own accord, putting limits on certain items so I don’t think it is necessary or appropriate for the Government to dictate this,” he said.
“The crucial thing is we need people to calm down and buy only what they need and to think of others when they are purchasing.”
The appeal came as tens of thousands of restaurants, cafes, and pubs across the country remained shut after Boris Johnson ordered much