A health chief has said it is up to NHS workers to decide whether or not their personal protective equipment is adequate to allow them to treat patients with coronavirus.
It comes amid fears that doctors and nurses are being sent to the frontline without the right protection.
Unions warned over the weekend that without proper equipment its members may decide it is not safe enough to carry out certain tasks.
Speaking at the daily Downing Street briefing, Professor Yvonne Doyle, the medical director for Public Health England, said: “Certainly people have to make their decisions based on whether they are in a risky situation or not,” she said.
“It is very difficult to legislate for all of that from a distance here. But the guidance is very clear on what is safe and not safe to do.”
She also insisted the advice to healthcare workers over PPE remained the same despite PHE telling doctors and nurses to consider reusing single-use masks, gowns and visors or to look for alternative equipment, when treating Covid-19 patients if stock runs dangerously low
She said: “The guidance remains exactly the same.
“What has happened over the weekend is to cover people really and given them some security in exceptional circumstances, advice has been produced jointly with the NHS about how to be safe in circumstances where supplies may be at risk.
“And that is a very precautionary set of advice – it’s quite the opposite to putting people at risk because there aren’t enough supplies.
“It’s trying to ensure that people are well secured and safe when there may not be enough supplies, and it also stresses how important it is not to take risks and when it is not right to do certain things and practices with the PPE.”
This evening the Chancellor Rishi Sunak revealed that 140,000 gowns arrived from Myanmar today.
But a planned shipment of 84 tonnes of PPE from Turkey was delayed over the weekend.
An RAF plane took off this evening to airlift the vital equipment.
No10 said there had been “unexpected delays” but stressed the UK was receiving supplies from other countries as well as from within Britain.
Earlier, NHS Providers chief executive Chris Hopson outlined the health service’s lack of confidence in promised supplies arriving.
He told the BBC: “We know from bitter experience over the last few weeks that actually we can only guarantee that gowns are going to reach the front line when they actually landed on UK soil, the boxes have actually been opened and checked and they have then been safety tested.”
But while 400,000 gowns due from Turkey would be welcome, NHS staff were getting through approximately 150,000 gowns a day, he warned.
“What we really need to get to is from the current rather hand-to-mouth approach to where sustainable supplies consistently and reliably arrive,” he added.
Palliative care doctor Rachel Clarke said NHS and social care workers 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.”
Health firm Landcent said it had 100,000 Italian-made PPE protective suits ready to ship immediately.
Co-founder Arun Prabhu said: “We’re supplying rapid test kits, coveralls, masks etc across Europe and are increasing our capacity constantly.
“We understand the urgency in the UK and are prepared to address these needs on priority.
“There is no reason whatsoever for the NHS to go short with PPE equipment as the global suppliers we work with can and are meeting the increase in demand due to coronavirus.”
Ministers have appointed a “PPE tsar”, former London 2012 Olympics chief executive Lord Paul Deighton, to “unleash the potential of UK industry to scale up domestic PPE manufacturing”.
The TSSA union, which represents transport workers, stepped-up calls for a Ministry of Supply.
At least 26 transport staff, including bus drivers, Tube workers and rail staff, have died from Covid-19.
The Government will need to win support from transport unions when it decides the majority of people can return to work.
TSSA leader Manuel Cortes said: “This new Ministry must have the ability to requisition industry to ensure we manufacture the life-saving supplies our country so badly needs.
“It’s time for the Government to stop dithering and give our NHS heroes and other essential workers the tools they need to safely continue to do their precious jobs.
“It’s now vital that a Ministry for Supply is created as a matter of extreme urgency with the new PPE tsar being part of it.”
The Prime Minister’s spokesman said more than 12 million items of PPE were delivered on Sunday, with more than a billion supplied since the pandemic began.
Highlighting “significant global demand” for safety equipment, he added: “It’s our job as a Government to ensure that frontline healthcare staff are protected as much and as appropriately as possible and that they feel safe.
“We are working around the clock to ensure enough supply is reaching the front line.”
