Health secretary Matt Hancock has told MPs that the government is working hard to make personal protective equipment [PPE] more readily available to front-line workers.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Hancock said that the “full weight of the government” is behind getting critical supplies to those in need of it, adding that the demand for equipment has forced the government to “create a whole new logistics network from scratch”.
He highlighted that the PPE supply chain is normally geared to serve 223 hospital trusts and is now having to supply 58,000 different sites, but stressed that the NHS has not been overwhelmed throughout the pandemic.
He said: "The NHS has not, an any point, been overwhelmed by coronavirus, and some said this would be impossible.”
Echoing the words of foreign secretary Dominic Raab, who spoke in the chamber at Prime Minister’s Questions beforehand, Hancock said that the government has already provided over one billion PPE items.
Concerning firms who have come forward offering to manufacture and supply PPE, Hancock clarified that the government is exploring "the biggest" and "most credible" offers first.
He also revealed that a new service will be launched to directly provide PPE to care homes, while testing will become more accessible to care workers through mobile units and the distribution of home testing kits.
The health secretary confirmed that 15 social care workers have died after contracting Covid-19, yet rebuffed criticism of the government's approach to testing, saying that it has had "its foot on the gas all the way through".
He added that the government is in the midst of "ramping up our testing capacity and our capacity for contact tracing in a matter of weeks".
