Scottish health chiefs raised concerns about access to personal protective equipment (PPE) two years before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the official inquiry has heard.
Exercise Iris, a 2018 trial by the Scottish government's Health Protection Division, tested how the country would respond to a pandemic within its borders. Findings from the test, which was prompted by an outbreak of MERS-CoV that killed almost 800 people, mostly in Saudi Arabia and Jordan, noted “challenges” in ensuring staff had access to PPE and training on how to use it.
Despite this, the Covid-19 inquiry heard today that work to make sure health workers and patients had the correct protection was not finished by the time the UK recorded its first coronavirus case.
