In the UK crisis surrounding empty petrol stations, pressure is mounting for doctors and hospital staff to be given preferential petrol. After four days of panic buying, most of the UK's gas stations are empty and closed. The British Medical Association warned of the "real danger" that NHS health service personnel could no longer drive to hospitals and practices due to a lack of fuel in their cars. Several associations and unions called on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to create a special priority for so-called key workers in the fuel supply by means of an emergency decree. There were already first reports of doctors in the north of England who could no longer drive to work. Taxi and transport companies are also worriedthat they will soon face a standstill due to a lack of fuel.

Philip Plickert

Business correspondent based in London.

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Despite a call from ten oil companies to stop panic buying because there was enough fuel and the supply crisis would subside in a few days, the situation at the country's more than 8,000 petrol stations has by no means calmed down.

Occasionally there were even fights at gas pumps.

Prime Minister Johnson has meanwhile ordered 150 soldiers to stand by as tanker drivers.

The army owns up to 80 tankers for such emergencies.

There were concerns in the government that the command for the army would fuel worries and panic in parts of the population.

Defense Minister Ben Wallace announced: "The men and women of our armed forces are ready to alleviate the transport bottlenecks".

The acute petrol crisis is not due to a general shortage of fuel in Great Britain. Instead, petrol stations have been overwhelmed by sudden panic buying since Friday after the media reported about individual closed BP petrol stations. Millions of drivers tried to fill up quickly. Under this fuel demand, which was up to five times higher than normal, the system went to its knees. There has been a national gasoline crisis in Britain in the recent past, in 2000, during the time of Prime Minister Tony Blair. Back then, farmers and truck drivers blocked several refineries and an oil terminal out of anger over high prices and taxes. As a result, a nationwide supply crisis arose. In response, politicians developed a “special petrol station plan”.After this, individual petrol stations can only be opened for emergency services, ambulance and emergency vehicles.

The government hopes that the situation will ease in the next few days. The oil companies are also trying to calm down. "There is plenty of fuel in UK refineries and terminals and as an industry we are working closely with the government to ensure that fuel is available to be delivered to service stations across the country," wrote BP, Shell, Esso and seven other companies. Companies believe that things will soon change after days of panic buying. Now that “many cars have more fuel than normal in the tank, we expect demand to normalize”. However, some experts pointed out that after the crisis of 2000, the situation of the filling station system only relaxed completely after several weeks. Meanwhile, Federal Reserve Chairman Andrew Bailey warnedthat the supply chain and fuel issues could cause the economic recovery to slow. The UK economy initially grew very strongly this spring and summer after the Corona slump. But there could be a dent in October. Bailey warned of a "tough track".