Hospitals were 'hours from running out of PPE' during early months of Covid, Hancock says
by Jane Kirby Ella Pickover and Storm Newton, PA · ChronicleLiveMatt Hancock has revealed England's hospitals were on the brink, mere "hours" away from exhausting supplies of certain personal protective equipment (PPE) during the initial months of the Covid-19 crisis.
The ex-health secretary disclosed to the Covid-19 inquiry that some PPE was in critical shortage across the first pandemic wave.
He holds a firm belief that in any forthcoming pandemics, vaccines should be compulsory for NHS and social care workers, and that masks ought to be obligatory in hospitals immediately.
When probed by lead counsel to the inquiry, Jacqueline Carey KC, about the pre-pandemic lack of gowns impacting the capacity to provide adequate PPE, Mr Hancock admitted: "The stockpile that we had was not as good as it needs to be in the future, absolutely."
Enquired whether England ever completely depleted its PPE stock, he conceded: "As a whole? No, but individual locations did.
"We came extremely close. We came within small numbers of items on a regular basis during April and May 2020 – by the second wave, we were in better shape.
"Gowns I think at one point we got to within six or seven hours of running out.
"We were working incredibly hard to make sure that we didn’t (run out). We nearly did."
On the topic of facemask usage in hospitals during future pandemics, he commented: "It should be brought in immediately, and supplies need to be ready, preferably in each hospital, to make that possible."
Additionally, Mr Hancock stated that ensuring health and social care workers are fully vaccinated is a "reasonable step that should be expected" and advocated for simultaneous implementation in the NHS and social care sectors. The policy requiring Care Quality Commission-registered care home staff to be fully vaccinated to work in care homes, unless medically exempt, came into effect in November 2021, with full enforcement from April 2022.
Mr Hancock expressed regret over not applying this rule to both social care and the NHS at the same time, emphasising: "If you are employed to care for others, then you should take reasonable steps to ensure you are not harming those in your care."
"A clinically proven vaccine is a reasonable step that should be expected."
Earlier, Mr Hancock, who was booed by a campaigner as he arrived to give evidence, claimed he had "ruffled some feathers" by shielding the NHS from political interference.
He also told the inquiry meddling from Number 10 created "incredible difficulties" in Covid-19 testing efforts.
The inquiry's third module is scrutinising the repercussions of the virus on healthcare frameworks within the UK's four nations.
When questioned about his witness statements, which alluded to "inappropriate political interference from Number 10" affecting the scope of these hearings, Mr Hancock acknowledged: "Well, of course some of it did. For instance, the biggest interference that caused difficulties was within testing, where some of the political appointees in Number 10 caused incredible difficulties."
He also pointed fingers at Scotland's former first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, for instigating "all sorts of difficulties" during the crisis.
At the onset of Thursday's hearing, Mr Hancock was probed about the protection of frontline workers throughout the pandemic.
He maintained that the government did "everything we possibly could", but conceded: "Does that mean, in a system that employs 1.4 million people in the NHS, with another around two and a half million in social care, that every decision was perfect? Of course it wasn’t."
Defending the Stay Home, Save Lives, Protect the NHS campaign, Mr Hancock affirmed its balance when asked, replying simply: "Yes.
"We needed to ensure that the public across the whole of the UK understood the importance of staying at home whenever possible in order to stop the spread of the virus."
Inquiry chair Baroness Heather Hallett questioned Mr Hancock about his assertion that the NHS was available to all during the pandemic based on need. She pointed out that individuals requiring cancer screening or major surgeries, such as hip operations, were unable to access necessary care.
In response, Mr Hancock explained: "It was not safe clinically to go for some cancer treatment during the pandemic, because cancer treatment sometimes involves reducing the immune system.
"It was better to delay some non-urgent operations in order to protect both the space in the NHS and the patients themselves because, as we know, you’re more likely to catch Covid in a hospital than in almost any other setting."
Mr Hancock emphasized that "the overall point is, that we did not have a collapse in the system".
Mr Hancock had previously resigned as Health Secretary after footage surfaced of him breaching social distancing rules by kissing his former aide, Gina Coladangelo, in his office.
Following his sensational departure from the front bench, he joined the cast of the ITV reality series I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!
Upon exiting Dorland House after giving testimony on Thursday, the ex-health secretary was greeted with cries of "liar" from protestors.
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