NHS staff pay highest price for PPE failures

WITH more than 30,000 deaths Britain has the highest Coronavirus death toll in Europe, But unlike some other countries, we had time to organise and get ready. So why did the government let it happen?

Gaps in protective equipment and procedures were found, but the time cushion was frittered away. The lessons of 2016 detailed pandemic exercise disregarded.

The confused and disjointed outsourcing of PPE delivery in Britain to hospitals by foreign companies added to delays. The Turkish supplies, flown in by the RAF were found to be sub-standard and unusable.

What PPE coveralls that were available often did not fit nurses on the front line!

Faced by this shortage of PPE, the government decided to solve the problem by downgraded the coronavirus virus threat so that just a face mask and a plastic apron could be worn by front line NHS staff dealing with it.

In large part because of inadequate protection, more than 150 NHS staff have died from the virus. People died because a political decision based on scarcity of PPE resources was more important than the lives of NHS staff.

But when coroners are conducting inquests on the deaths of NHS staff, they are specifically barred have from investigating any national failures of PPE delivery – the inquests can still blame hospitals and doctors!

People have died because of the government’s mistakes, people are still dying in care homes and in hospitals. Vital NHS staff are being put at risk.

All this from a government that claims to be taking back control!

Pete Milory Trowbridge, Wiltshire