Ministers have been too slow to respond to the coronavirus crisis as they failed to take up dozens of offers to help produce medical equipment, Labour has said.
Sir Keir Starmer vowed to offer “constructive opposition” in his first Prime Minister’s Questions as Labour’s new leader, as he faced Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab who deputised for Boris Johnson.
He accused the government of being behind the curve on lockdown, testing and driving up supplies of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) some nurses and doctors complain they are being forced to work without.
Mr Raab said all decisions had been driven by the chief science advisers and taken at the right times.
The pair clashed in a near-empty House of Commons, with MPs tuning in via videolink to make sure social distancing remains practised despite parliament’s return from the Easter recess.
Sir Keir said 36 UK firms had contacted him to complain they had offered to help manufacture PPE but heard nothing back from the government.
And he questioned why the number of coronavirus tests available a day stands at 40,000 but less than 20,000 are being used.
“There is a pattern emerging here. We were slow into lockdown, slow on testing, slow on protective equipment and now slow to take up these offers from British firms,” he said on Wednesday.
Mr Raab said 8,000 British businesses have responded to a call for PPE assistance and they have all received a response, with 3,000 followed up where it was “sensible”.
He added it was an “incredibly difficult and competitive international environment” to source PPE from overseas.
And he added more tests “will be crucial not just in terms of controlling the virus but allowing the country to move to the next phase”.
It comes after Helen Whately, the social care minister, told Sky News that some healthcare workers are now being offered another COVID-19 test after their initial test was deemed to have been “not up to scratch”.
The Daily Telegraph reported on Wednesday that a leaked document revealed tests on thousands of NHS staff were found to be flawed.
The memo from Public Health England (PHE), dated 11 April, warned of “degraded” performance, meaning the test results are less reliable than first thought, the newspaper said.
It also said PHE testing centres have now been told to stop using existing tests by Thursday and to instead use tests supplied by commercial firms.
Asked about the report, Ms Whately told Sky News: “My understanding from the clinical advisers
is some of the early tests were evaluated and the evaluation was actually they weren’t effective enough.
“This is a normal process when you are using a test for an illness, which as we know is a new illness and we’re learning all the time.
“Those who were tested with the test that we think is not up to scratch have been written to, to let them know and they will be offered another test.”
But Ms Whately downplayed the possibility of the flawed tests meaning that healthcare workers had been sent to work in hospitals and care homes with coronavirus.
She added: “In general we know that the guidance has been to people that, if you have symptoms, to make sure that you are isolating.
“We have to make sure we look at the reliability of tests.
“And this has been, also, the whole debate around the testing of people who don’t have symptoms, for instance.
“One reason why the testing is focused on people who do have symptoms is because we know the testing is most accurate when you have symptoms.
“This is really, really important – not just to test but to make sure we are testing people effectively.
“You need to make sure that it’s giving you an accurate result on which decisions can then be made.”
On Tuesday, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said it was “terrific” that capacity for coronavirus testing across the UK was increasing, as the government aims to deliver 100,000 tests a day by the end of this month.
Official figures showed less than half of the current available COVID-19 testing capacity has been used.
In the 24 hours to 9am on Monday, 19,316 tests were conducted against capacity for 39,250.
Ms Whately admitted it was “difficult” for some to get to existing testing centres, as they are “not necessarily nearby and not everybody has a car”.
The Prime Minister is hiding and every other minister behaves like a comatose Bond villain
But she added the government was increasing the number of drive-through testing centres from the current 27 sites to 50, while mobile testing centres are being piloted and there is also an aim to begin delivering home testing kits.
“These are the steps we are taking to make sure that we can actually use the testing capacity we have in the country,” Ms Whately said.
Professor Sharon Peacock, director of the national infection service at PHE, told the Daily Telegraph: “No diagnostic test is 100% sensitive.
“Following a rigorous evaluation, we learned the PCR test produced different results to alternative tests in less than 2% of samples, and we issued immediate actions to laboratory staff to ensure the continued reliability of the test.
“The test is regularly and thoroughly reviewed to make sure it remains reliable and effective.
“It is standard practice to move to commercial test kits once available, and this work is already under way.”
