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A senior Government minister has refused to apologise for shortages in personal protective equipment (PPE) for NHS staff treating coronavirus patients.

Business secretary Alok Sharma told Sky News he was "sorry for the loss of any life during this pandemic", after it emerged 19 NHS staff had died of suspected coronavirus. But Mr Sharma stopped short of saying sorry for the ongoing issue of getting enough PPE to frontline NHS staff.

Appearing on Sophy Ridge on Sunday on Sky News, Mr Sharma was asked if he would like to apologise for the shortages.

When Mr Sharma began apologising for "the loss of any life in this pandemic", he was pressed again on whether he wanted to say sorry specifically to healthcare workers "who feel that they don’t have the right protective equipment to do their jobs".

He replied: “It is our job to make sure we get that health care equipment, that PPE, out to them.

“Right now, your viewers will be asking: does the Government have a plan to get this PPE out to the frontline? And the answer is, yes we do have a plan.

“We are putting that in place, with millions of pieces of PPE kit going out to the front line. Of course, we need to be doing even more.”

Mr Sharma's comments come after Home secretary Priti Patel also appeared to refuse to apologise for shortfalls in PPE.

She told reporters on Saturday: "I'm sorry if people feel that there have been failings. I will be very, very clear about that."

NHS staff have been warning of PPE shortages for weeks, with the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) issuing guidance to say that staff should refuse to treat Covid-19 patients “as a last resort” if they are not given adequate equipment.

A spokesman for RCN said: “For nursing staff, this will go against every instinct. But their safety must not be compromised.”

The union said it would provide legal assistance to those making what it acknowledged was an “enormously difficult decision”.

Responding to that advice, Mr Sharma said health workers should not be put in such a position. He told Sky News: “It is absolutely right that no medical professional should be placed in a position where they have to make that choice. That for me is self-evident. That is why we are making sure we get the equipment to the front line.”

British Medical Association chief Dr Chaand Nagpaul said on Friday that healthcare staff faced "heart-breaking decisions" over whether to carry on treating patients without PPE.

"This is an immensely difficult position to be in, but is ultimately down to the government's chronic failure to supply us with the proper equipment," he added.

This followed several other warnings, including an open letter from 4,000 medics to the government in March pleading for more equipment to help them fight coronavirus.

Health secretary Matt Hancock told the BBC's Today programme on Saturday claimed that none of the NHS deaths were linked to a lack of PPE.

Mr Hancock was earlier criticised for describing PPE as a "precious resource".

He said on Friday that there is enough PPE to go round if used in line with official guidance, and his goal is that “everyone” working in a critical role gets what they need.

But Royal College of Nursing general secretary Dame Donna Kinnair dismissed his comments.

Ms Kinnair told the BBC's Today programme on Saturday that no PPE was “more precious a resource than a healthcare worker’s life, a nurse’s life, a doctor’s life.”

The Government has distributed around 741 million items of PPE so far, Mr Hancock said on Saturday.