A leading medic apologised for giving people hope that the shortage of protective equipment for frontline staff in the battle against coronavirus had been resolved.
Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Jenny Harries admitted that distribution had been 'tricky at times' during the daily press conference on Covid-19 on Tuesday.
Scores of nurses and doctors have complained in recent weeks that they have not been equipped with the correct protective clothing when treating coronavirus patients.
It followed a comment by Dr Harries more than a week ago, where she claimed the situation had been sorted.
Dr Harries said: "One of the issues have is, I stood here about 10 days ago, and I think very, probably optimistically in the past said we've solved the PPE position.
"So my apologies because 48 hours later I think our distribution issue popped back in again."
She said the government has been working to resolve the problem, with the help of the army.
She added: "So the distribution element has been a little bit tricky at times and we have now taken a whole strand of the logistics, including with the army support actually, so that we are developing a UK position on that stock and distribution flow.
“And the underlying critical point about this is that the PPE should go to match where the critical, clinical risk is.”
Dr Harries said they have made 'tweaks' to make sure staff feel like they are being properly protected when they treat patients.
Addressing the concerns of staff, she said: “We are very attuned to this and what we’ve been doing over the last few days is reviewing our guidance to see if, although we’re quite satisfied with the technical basis of it, if we can make some small tweaks if you like to ensure that people feel safer in what they are doing.
“And we’re addressing that over the current period.”
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