Doctors and nurses who speak out about the lack of personal protection equipment for hospital staff are being threatened with dismissal, they have said, raising fears that health authorities are trying to hide the extent of the crisis.

In a letter to the prime minister, 10,000 NHS staff demanded better protection. The government and health service chiefs insist there are adequate supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) and say remaining delivery issues are being resolved.

However, in the first acknowledgement that there is a problem when the authorities sought to assure the public there was not, Dr Jenny Harries, the deputy chief medical officer, admitted she had “optimistically” said ten days ago that issues with PPE had been resolved but they had since reoccurred.