{"id":40165,"date":"2024-11-21T15:58:34","date_gmt":"2024-11-21T16:58:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=40165"},"modified":"2025-12-03T07:24:48","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T07:24:48","slug":"nhs-hours-from-ppe-running-out-in-covid-hancock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=40165","title":{"rendered":"NHS hours from PPE running out in Covid – Hancock"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The NHS in England came within \u201csix or seven hours\u201d of running out of gowns and other protective equipment during the Covid pandemic, Matt Hancock has said.<\/p>\n

The former health secretary was giving evidence for the third time at the Covid inquiry<\/a>, about the impact on healthcare systems.<\/p>\n

He stated there was never a \u201cnational shortage\u201d of PPE for healthcare workers but \u201cin some places, they did run out – and it was awful\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked about reports that some nurses had to wear binbags early in the Covid crisis, he said the NHS needed to \u201clearn the lessons of what went wrong\u201d and put in place \u201cbetter stockpiles\u201d for the future.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Mr Hancock – who was health secretary at the start of the pandemic in 2020 – will be giving evidence over two days, as the inquiry investigates the impact on the NHS and healthcare across all four UK nations.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the inquiry\u2019s chair, Baroness Hallett, had to occasionally interrupt the hearing to tell bereaved families in the public gallery – some of whom were clearly highly emotional – to lower photographs of their deceased relatives.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Earlier, the former MP faced robust questioning about the squeeze on facilities many hospitals had endured at the peak of the two most significant waves of Covid.<\/p>\n

In March 2020, Mr Hancock said he was \u201cpetrified\u201d newly announced lockdown rules might not be stringent enough to avoid a repeat of scenes in northern Italy, where some Covid patients had struggled to access any care.<\/p>\n

But while some hospitals in England came under \u201cextraordinary pressure\u201d, the wider NHS system was never overwhelmed, he added.<\/p>\n

Mr Hancock was then asked about the case of Suzie Sullivan, who died of Covid in 2020. <\/p>\n

Medical notes written at the time stated Suzie was not suitable for a transfer to intensive care due to a pre-existing heart condition and having Down’s syndrome. Her father, John, told an earlier session of the inquiry she was \u201cleft to die\u201d because of her disability.<\/p>\n

Mr Hancock accepted that a bed in intensive care could not be found for every individual patient who needed it at the height of the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course there was enormous pressure, and of course, it has consequences,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said, at times, staff ratios had to be stretched, meaning specialist critical care nurses had to look after six patients rather than give the one-to-one care they would in normal times.<\/p>\n

But he added: \u201cWhat we successfully avoided, was an overall rationing – to say, ‘people, according to these characteristics, aren\u2019t going to be cared for’.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what would have happened if we had let the virus get more out of control.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid people get as good care as they would have done in normal times? Of course not. There was a pandemic,\u201d he told the inquiry.<\/p>\n

Asked about the imposed visiting restrictions, which meant some relatives could not be with dying family members in their final hours, and elsewhere, expectant fathers could not attend ante-natal scans, he said \u201con balance\u201d he believed the government got the rules \u201cabout right\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere I think we got it wrong, for instance, was the way that the funeral guidance was applied on the ground – it wasn\u2019t as had been intended.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other witnesses, including the first minister of Wales, Eluned Morgan<\/a>, and Scotland\u2019s former health minister Jeane Freeman, have suggested some of those restrictions, or they way they were implemented, might have gone too far.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Mr Hancock also defended the government\u2019s ‘Stay Home, Save Lives, Protect the NHS’ messaging, saying that it was \u201cliterally true\u201d that \u201cif we didn\u2019t stop the spread of the virus, the NHS would be overwhelmed\u201d.<\/p>\n

Giving evidence recently, England\u2019s chief medical officer, Prof Sir Chris Whitty, said, with hindsight, the authorities did not suceed in letting the public know the NHS was still open for non-Covid patients during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Mr Hancock alluded to how he had had to \u201cruffle some feathers\u201d to protect the NHS from political interference.<\/p>\n

He said he felt it was his job to \u201cshield\u201d the health service from \u201cpeople being difficult in Number 10\u201d.<\/p>\n

Some of the interference by political appointees in Downing Street caused \u201cincredible difficulties\u201d when it came to rolling out Covid testing, he added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The NHS in England came within \u201csix or seven hours\u201d of running out of gowns and other protective equipment during the Covid pandemic, Matt Hancock has said.The former health secretary was giving evidence for the third time at the Covid inquiry, about the impact on healthcare systems.He stated there was never a \u201cnational shortage\u201d of PPE for healthcare workers but \u201cin some places, they did run out – and it was awful\u201d.Asked about reports that some nurses had to wear binbags early in the Covid crisis, he said the NHS needed to \u201clearn the lessons of what went wrong\u201d and put in place \u201cbetter stockpiles\u201d for the future.Mr Hancock – who was health secretary at the start of the pandemic in 2020 – will be giving evidence over two days, as the inquiry investigates the impact on the NHS and healthcare across all four UK nations.On Thursday, the inquiry\u2019s chair, Baroness Hallett, had to occasionally interrupt the hearing to tell bereaved families in the public gallery – some of whom were clearly highly emotional – to lower photographs of their deceased relatives.Earlier, the former MP faced robust questioning about the squeeze on facilities many hospitals had endured at the peak of the two most significant waves of Covid.In March 2020, Mr Hancock said he was \u201cpetrified\u201d newly announced lockdown rules might not be stringent enough to avoid a repeat of scenes in northern Italy, where some Covid patients had struggled to access any care.But while some hospitals in England came under \u201cextraordinary pressure\u201d, the wider NHS system was never overwhelmed, he added.Mr Hancock was then asked about the case of Suzie Sullivan, who died of Covid in 2020. Medical notes written at the time stated Suzie was not suitable for a transfer to intensive care due to a pre-existing heart condition and having Down’s syndrome. Her father, John, told an earlier session of the inquiry she was \u201cleft to die\u201d because of her disability.Mr Hancock accepted that a bed in intensive care could not be found for every individual patient who needed it at the height of the pandemic.\u201cOf course there was enormous pressure, and of course, it has consequences,\u201d he said.He said, at times, staff ratios had to be stretched, meaning specialist critical care nurses had to look after six patients rather than give the one-to-one care they would in normal times.But he added: \u201cWhat we successfully avoided, was an overall rationing – to say, ‘people, according to these characteristics, aren\u2019t going to be cared for’.\u201d \u201cThat\u2019s what would have happened if we had let the virus get more out of control.\u201cDid people get as good care as they would have done in normal times? Of course not. There was a pandemic,\u201d he told the inquiry.Asked about the imposed visiting restrictions, which meant some relatives could not be with dying family members in their final hours, and elsewhere, expectant fathers could not attend ante-natal scans, he said \u201con balance\u201d he believed the government got the rules \u201cabout right\u201d.\u201cWhere I think we got it wrong, for instance, was the way that the funeral guidance was applied on the ground – it wasn\u2019t as had been intended.\u201dOther witnesses, including the first minister of Wales, Eluned Morgan, and Scotland\u2019s former health minister Jeane Freeman, have suggested some of those restrictions, or they way they were implemented, might have gone too far.Mr Hancock also defended the government\u2019s ‘Stay Home, Save Lives, Protect the NHS’ messaging, saying that it was \u201cliterally true\u201d that \u201cif we didn\u2019t stop the spread of the virus, the NHS would be overwhelmed\u201d.Giving evidence recently, England\u2019s chief medical officer, Prof Sir Chris Whitty, said, with hindsight, the authorities did not suceed in letting the public know the NHS was still open for non-Covid patients during the pandemic.Mr Hancock alluded to how he had had to \u201cruffle some feathers\u201d to protect the NHS from political interference.He said he felt it was his job to \u201cshield\u201d the health service from \u201cpeople being difficult in Number 10\u201d.Some of the interference by political appointees in Downing Street caused \u201cincredible difficulties\u201d when it came to rolling out Covid testing, he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40167,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40165"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40168,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40165\/revisions\/40168"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}