Right, I’m going to put this out there as an alternative view, awaiting to be abused but here it goes and please hear me out.....
Firstly, do I think Hancock is out of his depth, yes, most probably (for all his historical issues with the NHS Hunt would’ve no doubt been far better in these circumstances but that’s currently irrelevant)
Do I think his comment about misuse of PPE was as callous as it’s been made out to be, no. In actual fact it’s a valid point. In the briefing he was asking people to follow the PPE guidelines ie make sure you are wearing enough/adequate PPE but also not to overuse it
Now if there was an infinite supply (and no global pandemic) this would just be a ridiculous thing to say (what’s a few quid to protect a life etc etc). However as we know there is a potential shortage and this situation may well get worse nationally and globally before it gets better. as I think SBD and others have highlighted countries have also banned exports and we don’t currently make much of our own. It was mentioned yesterday 700m pieces of PPF had been distributed to NHS/social care etc since the start of the outbreak and one of the comments was that a doctor/nurse can apparently safely wear some of the same PPE for a session rather than change per patient (which will no doubt come with its own risks, take additional time etc). Let’s assume for example it’s three patients per session, over a month that could be a difference of hundreds of millions of pieces of PPE, some of which could be in short supply or difficult to replace in future.
Ive said before that for me PPE distribution (and supply line) and testing of NHS workers are the two genuine issues I would want/expect to be addressed asap and fully investigated once this nightmare is over. I’m sure the last thing health workers want to hear when they are risking their lives is ‘be careful not to overuse PPE’ but if by using PPE safely and sensibly, as per guidelines it means there is more to go around and in turn save their or colleagues life in future, it’s maybe not such an outrageous thing to say.
*Prepares tin hat but hopefully people get the point being made. As I say this isn’t about preparedness etc this is about what was discussed at the briefing