The UK government failed to purchase vital protective equipment to enable the country to cope with a pandemic, a new investigation has found.
BBC Panorama found that no gowns, visors, swabs or body bags were in the government's pandemic stockpile when the coronavirus swept into the UK.
NHS staff told the programme, which aired last night, that they are being put at risk because of the shortage of protective gear.
The investigation found that crucial items were left out of the stockpile when it was set up in 2009 and that the government went on to ignore a warning from its own advisers about missing equipment.
The expert committee that advises the government on pandemics, the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), recommended the purchase of gowns last June.
The government told the BBC that it has taken the right steps and is doing all it can to increase stocks.
As we have heard in Merseyside, gowns are one of the items in shortest supply in the UK at present, with NHS staff also complaining about a lack of the crucial FFP3 respirator masks.
Panorama has discovered that millions of FFP3 respirator masks are unaccounted for.
There were 33 million on the original 2009 procurement list for the stockpile, but only 12 million have been handed out.
The programme said that the government refused to explain where the other masks have gone.
A government spokesperson said there was "limited demand" for the masks coming through the Supply Disruption Line, "which is one reason why they haven't all been distributed".
They added that gowns were a recent recommendation from the advisory group and would be procured for the "future stockpile build up alongside all other necessary equipment".
One NHS procurement manager told the programme: "There is a complete lack of transparency from the government. They are creating panic, as we don't know if they can supply us so we are scrambling to get it elsewhere."
Professor John Ashton, from Liverpool, has spoken to the ECHO several times about his criticism of the government's handling of the crisis.
He told Panorama: "The consequence of not planning; not ordering kit; not having stockpiles is that we are sending into the front line doctors, nurses, other health workers and social care workers without the equipment to keep them safe."
Government minister Victoria Atkins told BBC Breakfast she was "very, very sorry to hear" of the Panorama report.
She said: "Like every other country in the world, [the virus] is unprecedented and the requirements for PPE have risen exponentially and we are doing our absolute best to address those needs and will continue to do so throughout this crisis."
