Via The Guardian: Matt Hancock says NHS staff death toll at 19 amid PPE row. Excerpt and then a comment:
The health secretary, Matt Hancock, has revealed that 19 UK health workers have died after contracting coronavirus, amid further backlash over his request that NHS staff do not overuse protective equipment.
Hancock said on Saturday he was unaware of any link between the deaths and a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) but an investigation would be carried out into the extent to which health workers had caught the virus on the frontline.
He told Sky News his “heart goes out to their families” and it was “heart-rending” that such a high proportion of the victims were people who migrated to the UK to work for the NHS.
On Friday Hancock urged the public to “treat PPE as the precious resource it is” following weeks of criticism over the lack of vital equipment.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) dismissed any suggestions that healthcare staff were abusing or overusing PPE. The RCN’s 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, Kinnair said she was hearing from nurses every day that they did not have enough protective equipment.
She said: “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.”
The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, said it was insulting to suggest frontline healthcare workers were wasting PPE. He tweeted: “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.”
Dr Rinesh Parmar, chair of grassroots union the Doctors’ Association, said it was “unfathomable” that the health secretary was “deflecting the blame at dedicated frontline workers for the shortages of [PPE]”.
Just imagine Dwight Eisenhower, as the Allies were storming French beaches on D-Day, appealing to his troops: "Men, don't shoot until you're absolutely sure you're going to hit a Nazi. Bullets don't grow on trees, you know."
