The Health Secretary today locked horns with Piers Morgan who accused him of misleading the British public and failing to protect NHS workers.
Appearing on Good Morning Britain, Matt Hancock denied the government had ever planned to deploy a herd immunity strategy and said frontline medics were his top priority.
But he became embroiled in a furious debate with Piers Morgan, who said the NHS was ‘being run over’.
Piers said the government was ‘woefully ill-prepared’ to deal with pandemic, telling the Health Secretary: ‘The nurses don’t feel protected.’
He added: ‘Why is it that Spain, France, Italy, Belgium; all these other countries around us in Europe are in almost total lockdown and we are seeing these catastrophically stupid scenes all across the country…we’ve seen all weekend people going out partying like it’s a bank holiday.
‘And still the Prime Minister stands at that podium and says, ‘My advice is that you don’t do this’.
‘People are not listening to his advice. They want clear direction because they’re too stupid to make that decisions themselves. We are risking lives.’
This comes as nurses working 36-hour shifts in Hillingdon Hospital say they had to wash, reuse and share masks as supplies fell critically low last week.
The nurses at the hospital – which is in the Prime Minister’s constituency – claim they were left without any protective equipment despite looking after patients who had tested positive for Covid-19.
It also follows a letter in the Sunday Times from almost 4,000 NHS workers who called on the Prime Minister to ‘protect the lives of the life-savers’ and resolve the ‘unacceptable’ shortage of protective equipment.
Medics are working around the clock to save the lives of coronavirus patients. Pictured, staff at Northwick Park Hospital in London
Matt Hancock took to Instagram to thank doctors and nurses and assure them they were his ‘top priority’
In their letter to The Sunday Times, the 4,000-strong group said many medical workers were ‘putting their lives on the line every day’ by treating coronavirus patients without appropriate protection, and called on Mr Johnson to ensure an adequate supply of masks, safety glasses, gloves, aprons and protective suits.
NHS England said millions more items of PPE had been delivered over the last few days to hospitals, ambulance trusts and care homes among others.
It said the army would ‘play its part’ from this week, offering personnel to ‘help to manage and offload supplies in busy NHS settings’ and distributing PPE supplies to the front line.
The Health Secretary revealed he had signed new laws over the weekend, allowing police to enforce stringent bans on going to pubs, clubs and restaurants.
He told GMB: ‘As we’ve seen, the number of people not following the advice is incredibly damaging to the effort to stopping the spread of the virus.’
But Piers asked: ‘Given it is costing lives, why is the PM not mandating it? Why is he not locking down the country? If that is the new strategy, having pursued a different strategy two weeks ago, lock the country down.
‘Your strategy has not been the same all along…it changed dramatically. Herd immunity was the strategy then dramatically, it changed. So please don’t insult my intelligence by telling me we followed the same strategy – we haven’t.’
Mr Hancock insisted herd immunity, ‘has never been the strategy.’
Piers added: ‘I’m seeing the NHS get run over, morons out on the streets, completely ignoring the friendly advice of our Prime Minister, I’m seeing the leader of this country refusing to take draconian measures to lock down the country when almost every other country has done so.
‘He believes that it’s wrong to remove people’s liberty. I couldn’t give a stuff. I think that you think we should be locked down, don’t you?’
Mr Hancock repeated the government’s advice urging people to stay more than two metres apart from others who aren’t in their household, adding, ‘If that isn’t followed we are going to have to take more draconian measures. I’m working every hour there is to protect people. I am not going to get into the tittle tattle that you’re talking about.’
He said the government was ‘ramping up testing’, adding, ‘I want to see people following the rules.’
He also confirmed he would consider removing parking fees for staff working in hospitals, and was simplifying the rules for qualified medics from overseas to work in the UK during the crisis.
As he confirmed neither he nor the PM had been tested for Covid-19, he added: ‘It’s all hands to the pump.’
Piers said: ‘Put the pressure on the Prime Minister get him to take the right decision.’
NHS England said millions more items of PPE had been delivered over the last few days to hospitals, ambulance trusts and care homes among others. Pictured, staff at Northwick Park Hospital
Mr Hancock also told the BBC today there have been ‘challenges’ with the supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) but that he was taking the issue ‘very seriously’.
Mr Hancock told the broadcaster: ‘I am determined to ensure that the right kit gets to the right hospital, the right ambulance service, the right doctors’ surgery, right across the country.
‘There have been challenges and I can see that. We’re on it and trying to solve all the problems.’
In a video on Instagram last night addressing NHS staff and social care workers, Mr Hancock said: ‘I want to say a huge thank you on behalf of the nation and I will do everything in my power to keep you safe.
‘This is my absolute top priority because you are keeping the country safe and I want to keep you safe.’
There has been increased pressure on the supply chain of PPE owing to the outbreak of Covid-19 as well as the related manufacturing slowdown particularly in China, the NHS said.
Emily Lawson, chief commercial officer for the NHS, said: ‘We need massively increased, urgent volume of these supplies to the frontline in this exceptional set of circumstances.
‘Working with our partners, we are now seeing much increased capacity, and a more responsive supply chain to help take us through the coronavirus outbreak. We are extremely grateful for the army’s support in doing so.’
Appearing on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Programme yesterday, Doctors’ Association chairman Dr Rinesh Parmar said NHS staff dealing with the coronavirus outbreak are still not getting the protective equipment they need.
‘We have had doctors tell us they feel like lambs to the slaughter, that they feel like cannon fodder. GPs tell us that they feel absolutely abandoned,’ he said.
‘We are all pleading with Boris Johnson that they really look into arranging the vital personal protection equipment that all of us need on the NHS frontline.
‘What our doctors are telling us is that although equipment is arriving, some of it is inadequate, some of it doesn’t meet the World Health Organisation guidance.
‘That really doesn’t fill front-line healthcare staff with the confidence that they need.’
It came as seven more people in Wales have died after contracting the coronavirus, taking the UK total to 240 amid a widening social clampdown on movement.
Speaking on Sky’s Ridge on Sunday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: ‘NHS staff have not all got full protective equipment at the moment or protective clothing, care staff have almost none at all and care workers, some of whom work in care homes, are obviously at risk but even more at risk are the care workers who are going from house to house of their clients and clearly are in danger of either contracting or spreading the virus.’
Earlier Jeremy Hunt, the former health secretary and current chairman of the Health Select Committee, told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday that the NHS has ‘moved heaven and earth’ to get protective equipment to every hospital.
Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick added: ‘By this afternoon, every hospital in the country will have the next set of supplies of PPE.
‘We’ve also delivered them to pharmacists and the GP surgeries. This coming week supplies will be delivered to all social care providers.
‘We are manufacturing and importing very large quantities now. In recent days we’ve received almost three million face masks for example.
‘PPE will get to the frontline as soon as possible.’