MATT Hancock has faced backlash online after praising a Daily Mail scheme to get personal protective equipment (PPE) to frontline NHS workers.
PPE is essential to protect frontline health workers during the pandemic, and there have been reports of shortages. Health Secretary Hancock has previously said the lack of availability is a distribution issue.
Just yesterday, while on LBC, Hancock was confronted by the son of a doctor who died after contracting coronavirus.
Before his death Abdul Mabud Chowdhury had warned the Government about the lack of PPE for frontline NHS workers, and asked them to secure equipment “urgently”.
READ MORE: Panorama: Westminster failed to stockpile crucial PPE
While speaking to the man's son Hancock repeatedly refused to accept mistakes had been made in securing PPE.
Last night Hancock retweeted the Daily Mail’s front page which showed the newspaper has brought over £1 million worth of PPE from China to get straight to the NHS front lines.
He added: “A brilliant initiative from @DailyMailUK in our national effort to tackle #coronavirus”.
The tweet caused anger among many, receiving a couple of hundred retweets but more than 2000 replies.
A brilliant initiative from @DailyMailUK in our national effort to tackle #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/umz70nKdmS
— Matt Hancock (@MattHancock) April 28, 2020
Writer Another Angry Voice accused the Secretary of State of having a “brass neck”.
They replied: “Matt Hancock here, congratulating others for doing his job for him.
“The absolute brass neck of it.”
Matt Hancock here, congratulating others for doing his job for him.
— Another Angry Voice (@Angry_Voice) April 28, 2020
The absolute brass neck of it.
Others felt it was strange that the newspaper was able to purchase the kit and, according to their own report, get it to NHS staff “today”.
Twitter user Ian Harris had his own “brilliant initiative” to share with Hancock. He posted: “Our government, who funds the NHS through the tax that we pay, to the tune of £130bn a year, perhaps should be doing this?
“If the Daily Mail can do this, you - the government - should be doing this?”
I have another brilliant initiative idea though.
— Ian Harris #StayTheFuckHome (@biscuitsgod) April 28, 2020
Our government, who funds the NHS through the tax that we pay, to the tune of £130bn a year, perhaps should be doing this?
If the Daily Mail can do this, you - the government - should be doing this?
It is thought that at least 82 NHS staff and 16 social care workers have died with Covid-19 in the UK.
On Monday a Panorama investigation found the UK Government’s pandemic stockpile did not include gowns, visors, swabs other crucial protective gear when it was set up in 2009. While the Government said its advisory committee Nervtag had not recommended stockpiling those items, Panorama reported the group had recommended gowns – one the most in-demand PPE items during the pandemic – should be bought in June.
The investigation also revealed that the UK Government downgraded its guidance on PPE and advised staff to wear less protective aprons and basic masks unless in the most-high risk situations in March, and downgraded Covid-19 from the list of high consequence infectious diseases (HCID). While its Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens backed downgrading the virus, sources on the committee reported that the decision had been based on the availability of PPE.
Yesterday SNP Cabinet Office spokesman Pete Wishart questioned Michael Gove over the perceived lack of preparation.
The MP said: “Why were we so unprepared? Why were gowns, visors, swabs and body bags left out of the stockpile when it was set up in 2009?
READ MORE: Covid-19: Pete Wishart demands answers on UK PPE stockpile
“The Royal College of Physicians has found that 27% of doctors are re-using or have used their PPE; why are they having to re-use PPE?"
Gove insisted that the pandemic stockpile had been built up in accordance with advice from Nervtag and repeated it had been specifically for a flu pandemic.
He said: “The nature of coronavirus is different from a flu pandemic, as we all know, and we, like every government across the world, have had to respond to this new virus by assuring not just with personal protective equipment, but in every respect, that we are in a position to retool, refit and to upgrade our response.”
After the Panorama investigation aired, a Department of Health spokesperson said: “This is an unprecedented global pandemic and we have taken the right steps at the right time to combat it, guided at all times by the best scientific advice.
“The government has been working day and night to battle against coronavirus, delivering a strategy designed at all times to protect our NHS and save lives.”
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