GPs in Kent and Medway have condemned the “shambolic” management of protective equipment supplies – warning that none of their practices have adequate supplies,

The county’s local medical committee issued the warning in a letter to their local MPs.

It says that “specifically” GPs have not had access to the eye protection recommended by the World Health Organisation. The GPs say they have obtained gloves from local businesses, 3D printed visors from schools and scrubs from volunteers.

The letter came as the Resuscitation Council continued to clash with Public Health England over its controversial guidance on protective equipment. The Council says that chest compression has wrongly been described as not an aerosol generating procedure.

The Doctors’ Association, meanwhile, has launched a petition calling for a public inquiry into the management of the crisis. Association chair Dr Rinesh Parmar said: “Public Health England’s insistence to recommend lower grade protection to doctors and nurses performing CPR leaves a void and causes confusion and alarm on the NHS frontline. Doctors have written to us with concerns that they are now being denied Level 3 PPE, risking their lives as a result of Public Health England guidance.”

Professor Jonathan Wyllie, president of the Resuscitation Council, said he was “deeply concerned” by the Public Health England guidance – and stood by the Council’s own guidance, which reflected World Health Organisation guidance.

He said: “The clinical reality is that chest compressions produce excretions from a patient’s nose and mouth. As such, irrespective of whether this is via aerosol or droplet or both, this poses a demonstrable risk to health care professionals.”

The UK reported a reduced death toll from the virus yesterday for the second day running – at 449, a number fewer than France and Italy.