Key items of protective equipment were not included in the government’s pandemic stockpile when coronavirus hit the UK, an investigation has found.

Gowns, visors, swabs and body bags were left out of the stockpile when it was set up in 2009, BBC Panorama reported on Monday evening.

Some of the items are now in short supply.

A Government spokesman told the programme an expert committee that advises ministers on new and emerging respiratory virus threats, known as Nervtag, did not recommend stockpiling swabs and body bags.

They said the stockpile was designed for a flu pandemic, and Covid-19 has a higher hospitalisation rate.

However, Panorama reported that Nervtag said gowns, one of the items in shortest supply in the UK, should be purchased last June.

Professor John Ashton, a public health expert who has previously criticised the Government’s approach, said the failure to stockpile some items meant NHS staff were working without crucial equipment.

He told the programme: “The consequence of not planning, not ordering kit, not having stockpiles, is that we are sending into the frontline doctors, nurses, other health workers and social care workers without the equipment to keep them safe.”

A Department for Health and Social Care spokeswoman said: “This is an unprecedented global pandemic and we have taken the right steps at the right time to combat it, guided at all times by the best scientific advice.

“The Government has been working day and night to battle against coronavirus, delivering a strategy designed at all times to protect our NHS and save lives.”

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