can you tell me first of all what the
position is on personal protective
equipment we keep being promised there's
more on the way more on the way where
are we
yes the personal protective equipment is
being driven out to all NHS and social
care settings as we speak there's a
massive logistical operation underway
and I understand just how important it
is and I feel very strongly about that
that when we're asking people in the NHS
to put themselves in harm's way to care
for us all then it's our duty to get
them the equipment that they need so I'm
I understand the concerns of course I do
and we've put in place a helpline so you
can phone in if you haven't got access
to it so there still might be people at
the end of today the end of tomorrow
hospitals where the kit isn't isn't
deployed it's not there well we've put
out a delivery to every hospital and and
that was descended ago but that was
dispatched from Friday over Friday
Saturday Sunday but the NHS with 1.4
million workers is a very big place and
making sure that you get them the right
masks to the right people at the right
time they've been asking for weeks
logistical effort yes we've been
delivering this to the hospital they've
been short for weeks people have been
saying there's concern for weeks we've
been delivering this to the hospitals
over over the last few weeks because
we've obviously been able to see that
the the growth of the virus while we're
also taking the actions to try to clamp
down on that and I've now brought the
military in to help improve the delivery
of that what went wrong this is this is
improper isn't it putting NHS staff in
danger like this well I understand very
deeply what will been wrong well I
understand my responsibility to get this
right and to make sure that people get
the equipment they need I think what's
happened is that understandably over the
last week or so the demand for and use
of the protective equipment has gone up
very sharp well hang on that's what
that's what an exponential pandemic is
all about isn't it we knew it was going
to go up we knew from the middle of
January when the w-h-o said there's a
pandemic on the way brace yourselves
so why wasn't this all done earlier well
it has been we've been working on this
no they still haven't got the kit well
when you say they a DNA chest off weird
constantly delivering more equipment
we've got to keep ahead of the need for
it
that there is in in hospitals and I'm
working 24/7 on making that happen
what's happening on testing cuz we will
a puzzled by that there are other
countries where an awful lot of testing
seems to happen and they seemed to if
you look at some figures have got a bit
more on top of things they seem to have
a good story to tell from testing and
yet we're not doing it everywhere
well we're increasing testing as fast as
we can and critically we're buying some
of the new tests that don't need the
sample to go to the lab to get the
result but instead they're essentially a
home test but you're buying them now yes
because they've really just been
invented absolutely some of them have
been around for a bit a bit longer than
that and what do you biink this is
something that we've been working on the
whole way through the hot the the
challenge is to keep their testing
numbers going up and to make sure as
many people as possible who need it the
especially the the patients in critical
care units and also the the clinicians
the doctors nurses who are still not
getting tested as we speak of course the
demand for is very very sharp but other
countries are on top of it they've done
more testing they've got hundreds of
thousands of the tests going on the
Spanish are doing much more than us we
know more happened in South Korea and in
China why not here did we have a
different philosophical approach to this
no we're doing more than many other
countries and there's a huge race on to
get as much testing as possible it
sounded like we weren't in that race we
didn't think it was a good idea for a
while and that's why we're behind no
that's not true we've been ramping up
the testing as much as possible as fast
as possible throughout where are we on
ventilators on ventilators we started
with around 5,000 in the NHS and we've
now bought so that we've got over 12,000
so that number is going up that's in
total but we're still buying and
the call to arms that we put out to say
manufacturing capacity needs to be
turned over to ventilators that has had
an amazing response you spoke about that
last weekend yeah but again the w-h-o in
the middle of January said yes this
thing's heading your way
yes you never thought 5000 respirators
would do it did you
that's right so we've been buying all
that time absolutely and and and the
numbers only going up now we've been low
on ventilators for Regions no the number
has been going up all that time as we've
been buying ventilators and the other
thing that we've been doing over all of
that time is training staff because a
ventilator is a highly technical piece
of equipment and it needs to have highly
trained staff to make sure that people
are safe using it but we could be
woefully short of ventilators as things
stand right now well at the mone how
many do you think at the moment we have
the ventilators that we need and we're
buying more and frankly I could put a
target on it but I but no number is too
high we want as many ventilators as we
can get our hands on I suppose all
people wonder about is was there this
period between the middle of January
when the w-h-o say this thing is coming
towards you and where we are now maybe
even the whole of February we're not
enough was done the grip was not got on
the sort of supplies that we'll be
needing this kind of pants
so Gary I completely reject that and the
supplies that we've got for instance on
the protective equipment are vast the
challenge you just haven't got them out
yes the challenge but Amazon can get a
kettle to you the next day and surely
there should have been more effort made
on that front the challenge is the
logistical one of getting the kit out
and likewise on ventilators we've been
buying them for four four weeks and on
the testing public health England came
up with one of the first tests in the
world and we've been ramping up since
then so of course this is a massive
challenge for the country of course it
is and we're doing everything that we
can but we have been on this for weeks
now and you know it may be that the
severity of coronavirus may have only
you know come home to some people more
recent
but we in the in the NHS and with public
health England and across government
have been working on this for weeks and
weeks to make sure that we are as well
prepared as possible
another example is the is the contact
tracing at the start when there were a
small number of cases we've managed to
keep the spread here slower than
elsewhere because we did all of that
contact tracing that has bought as
valuable time meaning that we are behind
France Germany Spain and certainly Italy
in the curve giving us more time to get
these things in place what did you think
as you saw those images of the weekend
of crowded beaches open spaces people
too close together yeah what's gone
wrong
well I frankly thought that people were
selfish not to be following the public
health advice because the more people
who who engage in unnecessary social
contact the more that this disease
spreads and the more people who will die
and the sowe're it will be to solve to
get out of it and we've so I'm prepared
to take the action that's necessary
we've already demonstrated that we're
close to Italy why aren't we doing what
is happening in Italy and why aren't we
doing it now well we've taken the action
last week to take very severe
restrictions on what people can do and
there but it didn't work we just talked
about that this weekend it didn't work
and then we've and then the we've also
taken that the powers in order to to
make sure that people must follow those
rules that we set out last week and you
know I'm I I am prepared to take the
action that's necessary just leave I'm
gonna say yes
and and death sounds that he's the guys
are pulling back opinion in the room a
bit holding back from sterner measures
no I think the Prime Minister has worked
24/7 on this unbelievable amount is you
good man to deliver a stern message yes
and it's a hard look leading the country
through this time requires you to follow
the science to listen to people's
concerns and then to take the
action that's necessary and we've
demonstrated that we're prepared to take
the action that's necessary we will
always follow the science that's
incredibly important but we'll also do
what is necessary to keep people safe
and to protect life very quick last
question have you seen any evidence to
suggest we're not heading fast in
exactly the same direction as Italy well
we are taking the actions earlier in
many cases on the curve the the curve of
the epidemiology because we're further
behind and we've been able to see that
the numbers go up so we are prepared to
do whatever it takes to get a grip on
this disease and to keep people safe why
can't I find a scientist dude thinks
that you think you're doing the right
things that's what the vast majority of
the scientific community think including
of course the top scientists like the
chief scientific adviser and the chief
medical officer which makes some people
wonder if something strange happens in
that room because the moment you go
outside that room where they're meeting
with the government you can't find a
scientist who agrees with it they're all
saying clamp down so I I don't think
that's true I think if you look at the
broad scientific community then there is
very strong support for the science on
which which we've published on which
we're taking their decisions and making
those decisions based on science is
obviously critical to getting them out
you