Changes to safety advice over the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) by NHS staff in the face of shortages has sparked a storm of protest.
The controversy came as a frontline coronavirus intensive care worker told Sky News that his team were down to their last box of protective hairnets and had been told to no longer "double glove" and to start reusing disposable gowns.
He felt the revised guidance around the wearing of protective clothing to treat patients with COVID-19 was based on the stock available rather than clinical evidence, raising safety concerns.
Health staff had previously been instructed to wear long-sleeved disposable fluid repellent gowns.
But NHS Providers, which represents hospital trusts, warned some would run out of supplies in the next 24-48 hours.
Public Health England (PHE) changed its guidance on Friday, asking doctors and nurses to work without full-length gowns and to reuse items "until confirmation of adequate resupply is in place", as "some compromise is needed to optimise the supply of PPE in times of extreme shortages".
The move has provoked an angry backlash as it was revealed a further 888 coronavirus patients had died in UK hospitals, taking the total number to 15,464.
The British Medical Association has warned that doctors and nurses should not be asked to "put their lives on the line" to save others, and said PHE's decision was "a further admission of the dire situation that some doctors and healthcare workers continue to find themselves in because of government failings".
Dr Rob Harwood, chairman of the BMA consultants committee, said: "If it's being proposed that staff reuse equipment, this must be demonstrably driven by science and the best evidence - rather than availability - and it absolutely cannot compromise the protection of healthcare workers."
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) echoed these concerns and claimed it was not consulted about the change in guidance, adding it was "unacceptable" if PPE was not provided in a healthcare setting.
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Chief executive Dame Donna Kinnair said: "Only sound scientific evidence or safety concerns should change the guidance.
"Nursing staff need to be afforded proper protection full stop."
The RCN has previously told its members to refuse to treat patients as a "last resort" if adequate PPE cannot be provided.
At least 50 NHS workers have now died after contracting coronavirus.
The shortage of PPE faced by frontline staff has been underlined by an NHS worker in an intensive care unit at a major COVID-19 trauma centre in London.
Speaking on condition of anonymity to Sky News, he said: "It feels very much like it's reliant on how much stock they have as opposed to clinical guidance.
"Because if it was clinical guidance they would have set what the lowest, safest practice would be from the get go.
"If they're saying this is the standard we should be having in intensive care and then when it seems something becomes low they then say we don't actually need to be wearing that any more that then becomes very suspect.
"The problem is that it (the guidance) is constantly changing, because it is very much reliant on the stock, not on the evidence."
He added: "That doesn't fill you with confidence."
He was concerned staff safety was being put at risk because of the lack of proper clothing.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock has urged more UK companies to volunteer to make PPE and admitted he would "love to be able to wave a magic wand" to increase supplies.
Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, said it was hoped the disruption to supply was short-lived and gowns started arriving "consistently and reliably rather than in the current fits and starts".
The Welsh government has said that it currently does not anticipate any disruption to its PPE supplies.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMicWh0dHBzOi8vbmV3cy5za3kuY29tL3N0b3J5L2Nvcm9uYXZpcnVzLWJhY2tsYXNoLWF0LW5ocy1wcm90ZWN0aXZlLWNsb3RoaW5nLWFkdmljZS1jaGFuZ2UtYWZ0ZXItc2hvcnRhZ2VzLTExOTc1MTUz0gF1aHR0cHM6Ly9uZXdzLnNreS5jb20vc3RvcnkvYW1wL2Nvcm9uYXZpcnVzLWJhY2tsYXNoLWF0LW5ocy1wcm90ZWN0aXZlLWNsb3RoaW5nLWFkdmljZS1jaGFuZ2UtYWZ0ZXItc2hvcnRhZ2VzLTExOTc1MTUz?oc=5
2020-04-18 15:29:42Z
CBMicWh0dHBzOi8vbmV3cy5za3kuY29tL3N0b3J5L2Nvcm9uYXZpcnVzLWJhY2tsYXNoLWF0LW5ocy1wcm90ZWN0aXZlLWNsb3RoaW5nLWFkdmljZS1jaGFuZ2UtYWZ0ZXItc2hvcnRhZ2VzLTExOTc1MTUz0gF1aHR0cHM6Ly9uZXdzLnNreS5jb20vc3RvcnkvYW1wL2Nvcm9uYXZpcnVzLWJhY2tsYXNoLWF0LW5ocy1wcm90ZWN0aXZlLWNsb3RoaW5nLWFkdmljZS1jaGFuZ2UtYWZ0ZXItc2hvcnRhZ2VzLTExOTc1MTUz
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