Phil Noble/Reuters
Empty shelves are seen in the pasta aisle inside a Tesco supermarket in Manchester.
- An NHS boss slammed stockpilers in a press conference, saying that they were leaving shelves bare and depriving NHS staff who are working long hours of having access to food.
- "It is critical that by not stockpiling, by not selfishly shopping, by leaving these supplies for others too, that our health workers are able to get access to what they need," he said.
- UK supermarkets have been overwhelmed with shoppers in recent weeks and have since taken steps to deal with the surge in demand by rationing food items and reserving certain opening hours for elderly or disabled shoppers.
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A senior NHS boss slammed stockpilers during the coronavirus crisis in a press conference on Saturday, saying that they were leaving shelves bare and depriving NHS staff working long hours of getting access to food.
"It is incredibly important that they too have access to food and to those essential supplies that they need," NHS England national medical director Stephen Powis said.
In the interview, Powis referenced a video shared by a critical care nurse earlier this week, which took off on social media. In the video, nurse Dawn Bilbrough broke down in tears after visiting a local supermarket and finding that it was out basic foods. In the video, she begged panic-buyers to stop stockpiling.
"I just don't know how I'm supposed to stay healthy," Bilbrough said. "Those people who are just stripping the shelves of basic foods, you just need to stop it because it's people like me that are going to be looking after you when you are at your lowest. Just stop it, please," she said.
"We should all be ashamed that that has to happen," Powis said. "It is unacceptable."
He continued: "These are the very people that we will all need to look after us or our loved ones in the weeks ahead. It is critical that by not stockpiling, by not selfishly shopping, by leaving these supplies for others too, that our health workers are able to get access to what they need."
UK supermarkets have been overwhelmed by shoppers in recent weeks. Some of the biggest chains have taken steps to deal with this surge in demand, rationing food items and reserving certain opening hours for elderly or disabled shoppers.
A number of grocery chains in the US have instituted similar measures to cope with the swarms of shoppers.
"We should all be ashamed"
NHS national medical director, Stephen Powis makes a plea to the public on behalf of all his colleagues to stop "selfishly shopping".
He says NHS staff "are the people we will all be relying on".
Latest on #coronavirus here: https://t.co/QAN4iWMBwU pic.twitter.com/C5pyVjNJka
- Sky News (@SkyNews) March 21, 2020💔 A message from Dawn Bilbrough. She's a critical care nurse who couldn't do her shopping due to #panicbuying over #covid19UK.
More here: https://t.co/l9WfenQbDN#BBCBreakfast #StopHoarding pic.twitter.com/nPYQXYSrU7
- BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) March 20, 2020