And nobody calls them out on this reported in the mail
Turkey has hit back in a row over the shipment of crucial PPE supplies to the UK after the British government blamed 'challenges at the Turkish end' for the arrival of the kit being delayed.
Ministers faced fury today after it emerged that coronavirus protective equipment in Turkey was yet to be shipped to Britain, with some hospitals resorting to washing medical gowns for reuse due to shortages.
The 84 tonnes of life-saving equipment had been due to arrive in Britain last night but it failed to be delivered with RAF planes now being tasked with going to get it.
However, only one of the three RAF planes earmarked for the job has now left RAF Brize Norton to collect the PPE which means it is unlikely to arrive before tomorrow.
The government has suggested the fault lies with Turkey, while the PM's official spokesman has insisted the UK is 'working with other countries around the world and with domestic producers' to boost supply.
But Turkish officials claimed to Sky News that the UK had only submitted a formal request for the equipment on Sunday as they dismissed the suggestion that domestic problems had caused the delay.
The officials said there was ‘never a problem from Turkish authorities’ and ‘all permissions have been issued very swiftly' in comments which will pile the pressure on the UK government.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak tried to use the daily Downing Street coronavirus press conference this evening to dampen the anger of health care bosses as he insisted the government is pursuing 'every possible option' around the world in order to secure more PPE.
Mr Sunak said the UK and other countries are facing an 'international challenge' to source the equipment and that ministers are 'working hard to get the PPE our frontline NHS and social care staff need'.
He said Britain is still 'working to resolve the Turkish shipment of PPE as soon as possible' but was unable to say when it will arrive. He did reveal a shipment of 140,000 gowns from Myanmar was unloaded in the UK today.
The hold-ups come with hospitals warning they are close to running out of some items, and medical bodies saying doctors could need to make 'difficult decisions' between exposing themselves to the virus or 'letting a patient die on their watch'.
Chris Hopson, chief executive of
NHS Providers, which represents hospital trusts, said there is 'low confidence' the materials will actually arrive today.
And he raised concerns that the situation was now 'hand to mouth' in many clinical settings.
'There's one trust that's discovered that if you launder those gowns at 60 degrees, what they've found is that there's probably up to three times you can do that and the gowns appear to still be capable of being fully fluid repellent,' he told the
BBC.
He accused ministers of raising the hopes of health staff saying they had 'bitter experience' of promised PPE either failing to arrive, or turning out to be either faulty or the wrong kit.
all along.
