A BBC Panorama report that aired 27 April, showed how the government had failed to buy crucial protective equipment to cope with a pandemic. The investigation found there were no gowns, visors, swabs or body bags in the government’s pandemic stockpile when Covid-19 reached the UK.
NHS staff say they are being put at risk because of the shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE), although the government said it has taken the right steps and is doing everything it can to increase stocks.
The investigation by BBC Panorama found that vital items were left out of the stockpile when it was set up in 2009 and that the government subsequently ignored a warning from its own advisers to buy missing equipment.
Full BBC Panorama episode available here