Death toll among NHS workers reaches 19 as Matt Hancock faces backlash for calling PPE a 'precious resource'

  • Read our live coronavirus updates HERE
  • Health Secretary said his 'heart goes out' to the families of NHS workers killed during outbreak
  • Facing backlash for calling protective equipment for healthcare workers a 'precious resource'
  • Sir Keir Starmer waded into row, calling Mr Hancock's comments 'insulting'
Stephanie Cockroft11 April 2020

A total of nineteen NHS workers have died from suspected coronavirus since the outbreak began, Matt Hancock has confirmed.

The Health Secretary said officials would work to find out whether the victims contracted the virus "in the line or duty" or outside of work.

He said that none of the deaths are believed to be linked to a lack of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE).

Mr Hancock told BBC Breakfast: “My heart goes out to their families, these are people who have put themselves on the front line.

“The work is going on to establish whether they caught coronavirus in the line of duty while at work or whether, like so many other people, caught it in the rest of their lives. It is obviously quite difficult to work that out.

“What matters is we pay tribute to their service.”

Health Secretary Matt Hancock during a media briefing in Downing Street
PA

Referencing a report from the Guardian that the first 10 doctors killed were all BAME, he added: “I’m particularly struck at the high proportion of people from minority ethnic backgrounds and people who have come to this country to work in the NHS who have died of coranavirus

“I find it really upsetting actually and it is a testament to the fact that people who have come from all over the world have come and given their lives in service to the NHS and paid for that with their lives.

“I think we should recognise their enormous contribution.”

It comes amid backlash after Mr Hancock described protective equipment for healthcare workers as a "precious resource".

Mr Hancock had said there is enough personal protective equipment (PPE) to go round if it is used in line with official guidance, and his goal is that “everyone” working in a critical role gets what they need.

But the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) dismissed any suggestions that healthcare staff were “abusing or overusing” PPE.

RCN general secretary Dame Donna Kinnair told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Saturday that no PPE was “more precious a resource than a healthcare worker’s life, a nurse’s life, a doctor’s life”.

Speaking later on BBC Breakfast, Dame Donna said that every day she was hearing from nurses saying they did not have enough protective equipment.

UK landmarks light up blue for NHS staff fighting coronavirus

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She added: “I take offence actually that we are saying that healthcare workers are abusing or overusing PPE.

“I think what we know is, we don’t have enough supply and not enough regular supply of PPE.

“This is the number one priority nurses are bringing to my attention, that they do not have adequate supply of protective equipment.”

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said it was “insulting” to suggest health care workers were “wasting” PPE.

Sir Keir tweeted: “It is quite frankly insulting to imply front line staff are wasting PPE.

“There are horrific stories of NHS staff and care workers not having the equipment they need to keep them safe.

“The Government must act to ensure supplies are delivered.”

The BMA medical union warned on Friday that PPE supplies in London and Yorkshire are at “dangerously low levels”.

Mr Hancock acknowledged distributing masks, gloves, aprons and hand sanitiser to frontline workers is requiring a “Herculean logistical effort”.

He told BBC Breakfast on Saturday it was important that healthcare workers use the “right amount” of protective equipment.

He added: “I am not impugning anyone who works for the NHS and I think they do an amazing job.

“But what I am reiterating, stressing, is the importance to use the right amount of PPE both to have enough and also to use it as the precious resource that it is.”

The row comes as the Government is urging the public to stay at home over Easter, after the UK recorded its highest daily death toll from coronavirus since the outbreak began.

The latest figures from the Department of Health and Social Care showed that as of Thursday there were 8,958 hospital deaths from the disease – an increase of 980 on the previous day.

Meanwhile, a British scientist has said that a vaccine to coronavirus could be ready as soon as September .

Sarah Gilbert, professor of vaccinology at Oxford University, told The Times on Saturday that she was “80 per cent confident” that the vaccine being developed by her team would work, with human trials due to begin in the next fortnight.

She said: “I think there’s a high chance that it will work based on other things that we have done with this type of vaccine.

“It’s not just a hunch and as every week goes by we have more data to look at… I would go for 80 per cent, that’s my personal view.”

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