Some hospitals in England were within “six or seven hours” of running out of personal protective equipment in the early stages of the COVID pandemic, a former health secretary has admitted.
Matt Hancock, who is no longer an MP, told the COVID public inquiry that some hospitals came “extremely close” to running out of stock in the first wave of the pandemic in spring 2020.
Mr Hancock, who was health secretary between 2018 to 2021, was giving evidence at the latest session of the UK COVID-19 Inquiry, looking at the impact the pandemic had on healthcare systems, patients and health care workers.
This morning he was booed by a protester as he arrived to give evidence at the inquiry.
Lead counsel to the inquiry Jacqueline Carey KC asked the ex-cabinet minister: “Do you accept that entering the coronavirus pandemic as we did, without a single gown, severely hampered the ability to provide safe and appropriate PPE for healthcare workers?”
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He replied: “The stockpile that we had was not as good as it needs to be in the future, absolutely.”
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Pressed on whether England ever ran out of personal protective equipment (PPE), Mr Hancock said: “As a whole? No, but individual locations did.
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Referring to the supply of gowns in April 2020 – in light of reports that some nurses at hospital in London had been forced to wear bin bags as protection – Mr Hancock said: “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 have a stock out. We nearly did.”
Mr Hancock was a familiar face at the regular press conferences that took place during the pandemic but was forced to resign in 2021 after he admitted breaking the government’s coronavirus guidance while pursuing an affair with an aide.
The inquiry, which has also heard other government figures including Boris Johnson and former prime minister Rishi Sunak, is examining the government’s response to the pandemic.
Mr Hancock also admitted during the inquiry session he believed the government “got wrong” the way funeral guidance was “applied” across the country during the pandemic.
During the early days of the COVID crisis, the number of people who could attend funerals was limited, with mourners told to keep two metres apart and only the closest relatives advised to attend.
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“Where I think we got it wrong was how the funeral guidance was applied on the ground. It wasn’t as had been intended,” he told the inquiry.
“But of course funerals were places where people gather and are deeply emotional, and people come together, and that was also the thing that was driving the spread of the virus.
“These were very difficult considerations.
“Broadly, on balance, I think they were about right, but we can go through every single decision, and you can easily make an argument one way or the other.”
