personal protective equipment PPE is at
the heart of our fight against
coronavirus shielding the doctors and
nurses on the frontlines who are
protecting us all so reports of
widespread PPE shortages are stirring
fears with growing numbers of doctors
nurses infected and even dying doctor
Nishant Joshi just coming off his night
shift is now having to work 80 hour
weeks to cover for sick colleagues we're
all filling in for sickness gaps and it
means that our exposure is going to be
much higher and it's going to be with
inadequate PPE so you can take a guess
at what's gonna happen to people like
myself and my colleagues over the next
few weeks the likelihood is that we're
going to get more sick more often and
that we're going to face even more
critical staff shortages Channel 4 News
has seen emails from two NHS trusts
which raised concern are the critical
PPE shortages as early as this weekend
this internal email from London
Northwest University Health Care Trust
warns that surgical gowns are running
critically low they also say we cannot
guarantee when we receive more gowns so
it is important that we make our current
stocks last similar concerns at the raw
free trust we will no doubt run out of
items over the weekend and so I would
ask staff to use stock and consumables
sparingly a spokesperson for the Rory
London Trust said they were confident
that they can continue to maintain the
necessary stock levels of PPE to support
their staff and the London Northwest
University Trust say that since the
email they have received a delivery of
PPE and now have adequate stocks I
raised the concerns of frontline workers
at today's press conference I'm sexually
will you apologize to NHS staff and
their families who've told us it's the
lack of necessary PPE that's led to
preventable mass infections and many
deaths well I think it's I mean look
absolutely we are focused as a
government across all departments to
make sure that everyone in the NHS has a
we think they need in terms of recall
resources and equipment but no apology
Home Secretary well I'm sorry if people
feel that there have been failings I'll
be very very clear about that but at the
same time we are in an unprecedented
global health pandemic right now it is
inevitable that the demand and the
pressures on PPE and the demand for PPE
are going to be exponential they're
going to be incredibly high the
government says they've employed
Herculean efforts to get PPE to where it
is most needed delivering millions of
items across the UK and even drafting in
the army to help but the British Medical
Association has warned that dangerously
low levels of PPE are forcing doctors
into an impossible situation having to
decide to risk their lives without
proper protection in recent weeks
pictures have been posted of staff
wearing mate shift PPE nurses in north
wig Park were pictured wearing clinical
waste bags as they appealed for proper
masks gowns and gloves but yesterday the
Health Secretary Mike Hancock and good
son by seeming to suggest that NHS
workers were overusing PPE everyone
should use this equipment use the
equipment they clinically need in line
with the guidelines no more and no less
tomate I would very politely invite him
to one of my night shifts over the next
few nights he's more than welcome to
join me on the wards as I'm scouring for
PPE sometimes I would ask him to please
bring it bring his own PPE because I
don't think we would have enough to
share to him there's an invitation for
the government to fully understand and
support frontline staff as they risk
their lives to try to save others
earlier I spoke to dr. Rosanna alençon
whose Shadow Minister for mental health
and also an A&E doctor
I began by put into her the government's
claim that they were unaware of any
correlation between the deaths of
healthcare workers and a lack of
personal protective equipment well I
think there has to be some sort of
correlation between the numbers of
deaths that we've seen
and the amount of time it took for
proper PPE
to reach the frontlines I asked the
prime minister myself a number of weeks
ago I asked him where was our prior
planning for our frontline staff to have
the protective equipment when they
needed considering that we had our first
case of covert 19 here in January it
simply isn't good enough staff of
feeling underprepared their mental
health is suffering a great deal we have
people who are having to bury their
colleagues because they have gone in to
fight to save lives they simply must be
protected so when the health secretary
said today that he suggested that some
NHS staff were overusing PPE it does
have a point
what we do not need in the NHS and for
our workforce is for the government to
go on on a press conference every single
day outlining the the number of pieces
of PPE that have been distributed we
need to have the protection on the
frontline and his comments are
uninformed and do nothing to build trust
between the government and those who are
putting themselves at risk to save lives
do you have enough PPE at your hospital
in South London it took us a number of
weeks to get the PPE that we needed we
then got a good amount and some of that
was because local schools had sent us
Goebbels which was absolutely fantastic
but what is deeply alarming is that this
looks like an attempt for the government
to shift blame onto hard-working NHS
staff when themselves they need to be
looking at what they must do in order to
protect those that are going in to bat
every single day to save lives well the
health search a has promised daily
deliveries of protective gear and there
is a sense isn't there that this is just
a huge global crisis that actually
no-one could do any better in the ally
of this particular storm no frankly I
feel the response has not been good
enough I am NOT saying that to score
political points because we have to be
working together across party to make
this work at a time of national crisis
when you've done a shift and you turn
the key in your front door how do you
cope
with the scale of the deaths that we're
now seeing in this country I have to
call ahead when I finish my shift and
ask my children to be kept away from me
until I've managed to have a shower and
change my clothes because there is that
palpable fear of spreading the virus to
those you love the most and I also have
a father in a care home who I can't go
and visit and he doesn't eat unless my
brother or ID goes and feeds him so I
worry every day that he thinks we've
just abandoned him completely left him
and have forgotten all about him because
we can't go and see him and reassure him
that we're there and we still love him
it takes a real emotional toll and
losing colleagues losing colleagues who
have gone to work to save lives and
honestly believing that some of it could
have been prevented if they had had
proper PPE from the outset that's a very
very difficult cross to bear do you
think that we may be over the worst now
there's some optimistic noises coming
out of those looking at the figures
we're seeing the death toll go up every
single day yesterday we had almost a
thousand in hospital deaths reported we
don't even know the scale of the issue
in care homes at the moment we won't
really know what we're dealing with all
be able to fight this successfully until
we roll out mass testing I am deeply
deeply worried about the recommendation
that it's okay to go out after seven
days of having the symptoms I believe
will need to be following w-h-o advice
and doing what the rest of the world is
doing I don't believe we have got on top
of this I believe that there is still a
long long way to go
doctor Rosanna alençon thank you very
much well out the down Street briefing
earlier police chief said forces have
seen a 21 percent drop in overall crime
in the last four weeks compared to the
same period last year
but today officers were still out in
force making sure people aren't reaching
the social distancing rules families
have been warned not to try visiting
popular tourist spots in East London
Victoria Park reopened today complete
with police patrols and loudspeakers
ordering people to keep their distance
or face being moved on or fire
I should tell is there for us tonight I
sure have people been staying at home
not from what I've seen in the parks
that we've been to but they have been
trying to keep their distance
apart form some sunbathers who were
moved on really quickly now today
Victoria Park reopened after being
closed for two weeks but one big
restriction is it's actually now closed
and that's because at four o'clock they
closed their doors but there are also
some other restrictions as well a
megaphone telling people what to do
those were Park Rangers police on
horseback also moving people along and
people were policing themselves and
policing others we heard people saying
well you shouldn't cycle there you
shouldn't do that we also heard some
other unpleasant things that we people
were saying as well but we spoke to
residents about how they feel about the
park being reopened this is my garden
because I live in a flat and the people
that spoiled it for everyone are the
people that are playing football and
rugby and I can't understand why the
police down evict those people that have
been irresponsible and let people like
myself that are staying socially distant
bear will tell you to park vermin or
help it's really it's really stressful
there are so many people running up and
down and people that are jogging are
completely thoughtless
but there's been criticism as well
there's been criticism that on the
hottest day of the year that this park
has reopened the mayor told us that
actually this park is needed for people
who are living in tower blocks nearby
and he also said that it's important
that they listen to the changes that
they've made well we need people to
self-police basically but we'll have
some part wardens and other people doing
better supervision so people need to
maintain their distance they need to not
come here for a barbecue or a drinking
party they need to really just come here
do their bit of exercise and then and
then disappear again it's day one and so
most people are respecting those rules
in this park for now but even since
we've been here waiting for this life to
happen there have been people jumping
over the fences and there were dogs kind
of running around in the park and it's
going to rely on the majority of people
doing the right thing and also