HEALTH organisations have rounded on the UK Government over its promise of more personal protective equipment to protect frontline care workers in the fight against Covid-19.
Chris Hopson, Chief Executive of NHS Providers, which represents hospital trusts in England, said there was "relatively low confidence" that a shipment of 400,000 surgical gowns which had been due to arrive in the UK from Turkey on Sunday would make its way into the country on Monday.
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He said trusts were being forced into "hand-to-mouth" workarounds, including washing single-use gowns and restricting stocks to key areas.
The NHS Confederation, which represents organisations across healthcare, has also reacted angrily to Government promises of more PPE, saying delays on the shipment from Turkey "makes a difficult situation worse".
Niall Dickson, its Chief Executive, said: "It would have been better had the Government not made the announcement in the first place," and pointed out staff would need to make their own assessment over whether they felt safe with the PPE currently on offer.
Mr Hopson told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that it was wrong to focus on individual consignments of PPE because "bitter experience over the last few weeks" has shown they cannot be relied upon, with some boxes containing the wrong items and thousands of pieces missing.
"So rather than being marched up to the top of the hill and being marched back down again, let's just focus on what we know we can be certain of.
"Let's not focus on individual consignments, let's try and get as quickly as possible to a sustainable supply of these gowns.
"There's no doubt that at the moment, we have now got trusts that have definitely got shortages of gowns."
Mr Hopson said trusts were reserving the stock of fluid-resistant gowns they did have for areas of high clinical risk such as intensive care units and were using workarounds in other areas.
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"There's one trust that's basically discovered that if you launder those gowns at 60 degrees...there's probably up to three times that you can do that and the gowns appear to still be fully fluid-repellent," he explained, noting such a move was not ideal but the situation was "really hand-to-mouth".
While there had been many problems with consignments from abroad failing and the wrong items being sent, the NHS Providers chief said: "I suppose the question that we will need to ask whether this is over, is actually: was the pandemic stock reserve that was meant to tide us over, was it correctly configured?"
The NHS is thought to use around 150,000 gowns a day, meaning the stock from Turkey would last less than three days.
Oliver Dowden, the Culture Secretary, said he was hopeful the gowns would still arrive, telling BBC One's Breakfast programme: "We are very hopeful that later today that flight will take off and we will get those gowns. We are working very hard to resolve this, there have been challenges at the Turkish end.
"I don't want to start making more and more promises but I understand that that flight will take off this afternoon and they will be delivered."
Another 25 million gowns from China had been procured and the UK would be "getting those shortly as well", he said.
Rachel Clarke, a palliative care doctor, said NHS workers and those in social care were being told to wear "skimpy little plastic aprons".
She added: "They don't cover your arms, and your neck and the top of your chest, they're not covered either. That means you're at an increased risk of catching coronavirus and - crucially - at increased risk of spreading it to your patients.
"We are using a pinny essentially; a skimpy, plastic pinny."
In other developments -
*Professor Sarah Gilbert from the University of Oxford, who is leading a team developing a Covid-19 vaccine, said comments by the Government's chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, that all vaccines were "long shots," did not pour cold water over her work.
*Mr Dowden defended Boris Johnson's absence from several emergency Cobra meetings in the early stages of the battle against Covid-19, saying it was "perfectly normal for other ministers, appropriate secretaries of state, to chair Cobra".
*asked about Mr Johnson's reported reluctance to end the lockdown soon, a Number 10 source said: "The PM is very concerned about a second peak if we lift the restrictions too soon."
*Sir Richard Branson warned the survival of airline Virgin Atlantic depended on it receiving a commercial loan from the Treasury.
*The UK Government has denied there are any plans for schools in England to reopen soon with Education Secretary Gavin Williamson saying on Sunday there was no set date for pupils to go back.
Meanwhile, the Government scheme for workers who have been furloughed - given a temporary leave of absence - has been launched while and Chancellor Rishi Sunak also announced a £1.25 billion package to aid companies in the innovation sector.
The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme allows businesses to claim towards staff wages and comes after the Government was warned of the economic cost for many companies of any delay in its implementation.
Under the initiative, employers can go online to claim cash grants worth up to 80% of wages, capped at £2,500 a month per worker.
The Treasury has said the system can process up to 450,000 applications an hour with employers expected to receive the money within six working days of an application.
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