Recommendation 27

By October 2020, employers had reported 8,152 diagnosed cases of COVID-19 and 126 deaths as being linked to occupational exposure among health and care workers.45 The British Medical Association and Unison asserted that the Department should investigate whether PPE shortages contributed to staff infections and deaths from COVID19. The Department told us that there was currently no evidence to show that shortages of PPE had contributed to staff deaths, but that that investigations were ongoing. It told us that all deaths in trusts are investigated by medical examiners, who refer to the Health & Safety Executive any cases where there is a chance that work-related exposure led to the death. The Health & Safety Executive will examine these cases, and the Department told us it awaited the outcome of this investigation and would act on its findings.46