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LONDON: Britain’s failure to stock key pieces of personal protective equipment (PPE) ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic left supplies dangerously low and forced the government to pay five times the normal price to meet demand, said the public spending regulator.
About a third of doctors and nurses, including those working in the riskiest areas of hospitals with COVID-19 patients, complained that they were given inadequate protective equipment when the pandemic swept across Britain early. of this year.
There were not enough gowns and visors despite warnings from some of the government’s top scientific advisers last year that they should be increased, the National Audit Office (NAO) said in a report.
Government reserves, which were only about two weeks old from most teams, were too low because the focus had been on preparing for a flu pandemic, not a more infectious and deadly coronavirus, the NAO said.
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Desperate, the government spent £ 12.5bn (US $ 16.6bn) between February and July on protective equipment, £ 10bn more than the same items would have cost last year, the NAO said. The inflated prices included an increase from 166% for respiratory masks to 1,310% for body bags.
But less than a tenth of the 32 billion equipment purchased during this period arrived for the first wave of the pandemic, the watchdog said.
FILE PHOTO: Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is seen at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases, as the number of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases increases worldwide, in London, Britain, on 1 April 2020. REUTERS / Dylan Martinez / File Photo
“The national reserve was not big enough for a coronavirus outbreak, a consequence of the fixation of pandemic plans for influenza,” said Meg Hillier, an opposition lawmaker who chairs the Public Accounts Committee in parliament.
“The government was too slow to recognize how precarious the job was,” he added. “When the penny finally fell, DHSC had to struggle to buy what was left as prices went through the roof.”
READ: UK Prime Minister defends COVID-19 contracts after criticism from watchdogs
Jo Churchill, a junior health minister, said the report confirms that, even during the unprecedented pandemic, hospitals were never without protective equipment.
“We are confident that we can provide a continuous supply to our amazing frontline workers for the months to come,” he said.
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