An RAF plane carrying a consignment of personal protective equipment (PPE) for NHS has landed in the UK, after a number of delays.
The Airbus A400-M registered ZM416 departed Istanbul and landed at RAD Brize Norton just after 3.30am on Wednesday.
The plane had been dispatched from the Oxfordshire base, where two other planes are on stand-by to pick up further kit from Turkey, late on Monday.
It is not known if the consignment, which was ordered on Thursday and originally due to arrive on Sunday, includes 400,000 badly-needed surgical gowns.
The Government has come in for mounting criticism over its failure to ensure NHS staff treating coronavirus patients have the protective equipment they need.
Ministers insisted they were pursuing “every possible option” to secure additional kit but said that, with unprecedented worldwide demand, the situation is “very challenging”.
READ MORE: Army may be used to get protective gear to carers
Local Government Minister Simon Clarke could not give a timescale on when the full supplies would arrive earlier this week, saying only that it would be in the “next few days”.
Separately, the Government said that 140,000 gowns had arrived from Burma – but with the NHS using 150,000 a day, the demand on resources remains intense.
With fears that staff in hospitals and care homes are risking their lives, the TUC called for an independent inquiry into the Government’s handling of the issue to be mounted before the end of the year.
Hospitals have sought other ways of obtaining PPE, with the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust buying 6,000 sets of coveralls due to a very low stock of gowns, although it admitted this was “not ideal”.
Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, has said trusts are being forced into “hand-to-mouth” workarounds, including washing single-use gowns and restricting stocks to key areas.
READ MORE: UK Govt 'working round the clock' to get protective equipment to frontline NHS staff
Chancellor Rishi Sunak told reporters at the Number 10 press briefing on Monday that work was ongoing to find more PPE.
He said: “We’re improving our sourcing internationally and domestically to make sure we can get the PPE we need in what is a very challenging international context.
“But people on the front line can rest assured that we’re doing absolutely everything we can and straining everything we can to get the equipment they need.”
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