Hancock: ‘no evidence that a shortage of PPE led to anybody dying of covid’

The health and social care secretary told MPs on Thursday afternoon “it saddens me immensely”.

The number is nearly double the last reported official figure for staff deaths, which in January put the total at 850 across England and Wales between March and December 2020.

Mr Hancock did not specify which parts of the UK were covered by the 1,500 figure.

Although the second wave, which peaked in England in January 2021, was more severe than the first, staff reported fewer problems with personal protective equipment, and other infection prevention was improved.

Asked by a committee member whether he would say he protected NHS staff Mr Hancock said “absolutely, we did everything we possibly could. And not only that but we protected the NHS so the provision was there for patients, as much as was possible. And we provided that PPE as we discussed.”

Mr Hancock also said, in response to questions on PPE procurement and shortages of the kit: “We’ve looked into this and there is no evidence that I have seen that a shortage of PPE provision led to anybody dying of covid. Now that is from the evidence that I have seen.”

Throughout 2020 the government said there was never a national shortage of PPE, but this obscures significant local problems with the availability or suitability of the protective equipment. Frontline staff being forced to use binbags for protection early in the pandemic were widely reported.

Two weeks earlier the same committee had heard former government advisor Dominic Cummings say that Mr Hancock was a liar who had blamed NHS England chief executive Sir Simon Stevens and chancellor Rishi Sunak for PPE shortages.

Mr Cummings said: “[Hancock] told us ‘Everything is fine on PPE. We have got it all covered,’ and so on. When I came back, almost the first meeting I had in the Cabinet Room was about the disaster over PPE and how we were actually completely short and hospitals all over the country were running out. [Hancock] said in that meeting, ‘This is the fault of Simon Stevens; it is the fault of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. It is not my fault—they blocked approvals on all sorts of things.’

“I said to the cabinet secretary, ‘Please investigate this and find out if it is true.’ The cabinet secretary came back to me and said, ’It’s completely untrue. I have lost confidence in the secretary of state’s honesty in these meetings.’”

In November an HSJ investigation found a low uptake of the £60,000 death in service compensation offered to health and social care workers who died of covid.

At the committee this afternoon Mr Hancock paid tribute to the staff that had died.

He said: “The first four doctors who lost their lives were all from ethnic minority communities. At Eid I went to Brent Central Mosque to thank them and through them everybody who works in the NHS from all different communities and especially to mark the sacrifice of those who have come to this country to offer their services and to work in the NHS and who gave their lives in the pandemic is something that moves me a lot.”

He added: “The people who work in the NHS work incredibly hard and have faced some of the toughest situations of their lives over the last 18 months.”