LONDON (Reuters) – The United Kingdom is tight on gowns for front line health workers fighting COVID-19 but hopes to get the right equipment where it is needed by the end of this weekend, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Friday.
A person who is part of a network of organisations helping to source personal protective equipment for some NHS trusts told the BBC that he needed the phone numbers for Burberry and Barbour to source protective equipment.
“We are tight on gowns, that is the pressure point at the moment,” Hancock told the British Parliament’s Health and Social Care Committee. “We have another 55,000 gowns arriving today and we’re working on the acquisition internationally of more gowns.”
When asked if he would ensure gowns got to the right places over the course of the weekend, he said that was the aim of the government. Hancock said that ultimately there was a global shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
(Corrects story from April 17 after the BBC issued a correction to show it had mistakenly reported that a director of an NHS trust had asked for the phone numbers for Burberry and Barbour. The BBC said that the person was a part of a network of organisations seeking to source protective equipment but not the head of an NHS trust. The BBC apologised for its mistake.)
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Kate Holton; editing by Paul Sandle.)
