M&S introduces dedicated shopping hours for NHS workers as rest of UK supermarkets urged to follow suit

MARKS and Spencer have introduced a special shopping hour for our hero NHS workers during the coronavirus pandemic - as the rest of supermarket giants were urged to follow suit.

M&S today announced it will give NHS and emergency service workers the first hour of every Tuesday and Friday morning to buy their essentials - after similar measures were introduced for the elderly and vulnerable.

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It comes after photo of a medic stood looking forlorn at the end of a shift in an empty Sainsbury's store went viral and captured the reality of people panic-buying during the coronavirus pandemic.

And mum Val Wood, 63, from Hainault in Essex, whose daughter Sandy is a phlebotomist at the Queen's Hospital in Romford, complained she was not able to buy the basics.

She told the Sun Online: "When Sandy goes to work in the morning there's people queuing all the way down the street and obviously NHS staff can't queue or they would be late for work.

"And when she comes home in the evening, there's nothing left on the shelves.

"She can't get the basics - bread, milk, or anything. She tends to work around 8am - 6pm but she works very different hours.

"I'm one of the vulnerable ones. I've actually had to stop working, I work in a supermarket. But there's hundreds of people there, so I had to stop for my health. I can't help.

"She says she can't see me in case she has germs from the hospital, she doesn't want to bring them over.

"If our NHS workers are ill, who's going to look after you? What's going to happen if they're ill and can't feed themselves?"

In response, M&S announced it was introducing allotted times for NHS workers to do their shopping.

In a statement, it said: "M&S is today taking further steps to support its customers, colleagues and local communities during this unprecedented time.

"M&S will help ensure its older and more vulnerable customers can access the food and products they need by reserving the first hour of trading for them at all of its owned stores.

"The first will take place tomorrow and after this, on every Monday and Thursday.

"In addition, M&S is also introducing a special shopping hour to support our dedicated NHS and emergency service workers – and this will take place for the first hour each Tuesday and Friday morning."

Sun Online have contacted other supermarket giants to see if they will also introduce special shopping hours for NHS workers.

British supermarkets have struggled for two weeks to keep shelves stocked in the face of intense panic buying, despite appeals for calm from supermarket bosses and politicians.

Shoppers have ignored their pleas - with hand sanitiser, bleach, tinned food and pasta all greedily bought in bulk by selfish shoppers - as cases continue to rise in the UK.

John Lewis and Waitrose became the latest retailers today to announce limits on the purchase of some items - as coronavirus cases in the UK rose to 2,692 and the death toll to 137.

It comes after rivals Tesco, Sainsbury's, Aldi, Asda and Morrisons all announced similar measures to ease stockpiling pressures.