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Desperate medics battling Covid-19 say they are cutting up hospital curtains to make gowns and using bits of plastic as makeshift masks due to kit shortages.

Damning accounts from the front line also tell of hospital staff raiding cupboards to re-use old theatre scrubs.

It came as London hospitals were warned not to expect gown deliveries for at least the next few days – and after three nurses who had posted a snap of themselves working in bin bags reportedly tested positive for the virus.

Mr Hancock tried to tackle the row unveiling a “three-strand plan” to end the personal protective equipment crisis – which includes a “Herculean logistical effort”.

Strand one is to circulate PPE guidance to staff, strand two is to speed up distribution to hospitals from one delivery every three days to daily. And strand three is to boost purchasing from abroad and make more here.

Do you work in the NHS and lack PPE? Email webnews@mirror.co.uk

Mr Hancock said more than 742 million pieces of PPE have been delivered during the outbreak. But despite assurances, senior medics warn kit is not reaching enough frontline staff.

One senior doctor claimed intensive care staff are being cut due to a lack of PPE.

Advocacy group EveryDoctor revealed medics say they are using plastic goggles from their kids’ schools – and images sent in show staff with homemade masks using plastic and straps from B&Q.

And the Mirror saw a report of doctors being measured for aprons made of plastic curtains, reading: “No immediate stocks of gowns due in national supply chain in the next few days. We are unsighted on when ­deliveries will be.”

EveryDoctor’s Dr Julia Patterson said: “It is unbelievable healthcare workers are having to make homemade PPE from curtains.

“By not providing intensive care staff with sufficient PPE, the Government is placing lives at risk. Guidance needs to be revised in line with World Health Organisation recommendations and the funds need to be spent. We are facing a humanitarian crisis.”

One anonymous doctor at King’s College Hospital in South London said they are cutting staff levels on the ICU ward as “there simply aren’t enough PPE”.

And they are planning to re-use old theatre gowns as stocks for single-use gowns could run out this weekend.

The source said: “All staff are worried about the lack of basic kit. There are not enough gowns and colleagues in similar hospitals across the capital say the same.

"There is also a lack of dialysis machines we need to treat the most seriously ill coronavirus patients.

“We are using around 2,000 single-use PPE gowns a day. If they run out we will have no choice but to re-use old theatre gowns, which can be washed, but the turnaround is a day or two.”

Mr Hancock said the PPE shipped in the crisis includes 161 million masks, 127 million aprons, a million gowns and 345 million pairs of gloves.

He said the kit has gone to hospitals, ambulance trusts, GPs, social care and pharmacies – and some items can be used for a whole session and do not need to be changed after each patient.

Mr Hancock added: “This is a Herculean logistical effort. We’ve brought together the NHS, private industry and the Army – in fact, the armed forces – to create a giant PPE distribution network on an unprecedented scale.”

He also said the pressures sit within a “huge international demand” for PPE and a “global squeeze” on supply.

But the British Medical Association said last night that PPE is at “dangerously low levels” in the London and Yorkshire regions. Dr Chaand Nagpaul, BMA council chair, said: “We note the Government’s three-strand PPE plan.

“However, PPE should not be a ‘precious resource’ and for staff facing shortages of protection they need it today.

"They don’t want to hear of a plan but that this vital equipment is made available to the front line now."

Royal College of Nursing director Susan Masters added: “These figures on deliveries are only impressive when nursing staff stop contacting me to say what they need wasn’t available. People are petrified.

"They have seen colleagues die already."

Mr Hancock also said last night his goal is that “everyone” in a critical role gets the PPE they need. He said: “There’s enough PPE to go around but only if it’s used in line with our guidance.”

But the UK has refused to stick to WHO advice that all medics have full-length protective gowns. Instead, NHS England and Public Health England said sleeveless aprons could be worn for some treatments.

Campaigners fear the difference in advice was due to lack of stock.

Masks or goggles should also be available to all medics, the WHO says. But UK guidance states eyewear be used only if they make a risk assessment that it is necessary.

NHS Supply Chain said: “We are continuing to deliver millions of products every day. Over the last few days, 119,000 gowns were delivered in England.”

King’s College Hospital said: “There is a sufficient supply of single-use PPE across the Trust – including gowns and coveralls. Clinical areas are restocked twice a day, or more frequently if needed.”