Personal protective equipment worth £2.8bn is not fit for purpose, health minister admits

By Jane Kirby, Reporter17th September 2021News EnglandCoronavirus / Covid-19, Government / Politics, Hospitals, News England, NHS

Personal protective equipment (PPE) worth £2.8 billion is not fit for purpose and cannot be used by the NHS, a health minister has revealed.

Lord Bethell said 1.9 billion items of stock are currently in the “do not supply” to the NHS category.

He was answering a Parliamentary question from crossbencher Lord Alton of Liverpool around “faulty PPE” that has not met the required level of protection.

“As of June 10, 1.9 billion items of stock were in the ‘do not supply’ category,” Lord Bethell said.

“This is equivalent to 6.2% of purchased volume with an estimated value of £2.8 billion.

“We are considering options to repurpose and recycle items in this category which ensures safety and value for money.

“Discussions with suppliers are ongoing.”

Earlier this month, it emerged the Government is in dispute with several companies over £1.2 billion of PPE that has been deemed “sub-standard” or was undelivered.

At that time, Lord Bethell provided a written response to Lib Dem peer Lord Lee, who had asked how much had been reclaimed from firms providing equipment found to be “not fit for purpose”.

The health minister replied: “The department is working through all its personal protective equipment (PPE) contracts to identify instances where products have not been delivered or failed quality tests and will seek to recover the costs for undelivered or sub-standard PPE.

“As of July 27 2021, the department was engaged in commercial discussions – potentially leading to litigation – in respect to 40 PPE contracts with a combined value of £1.2 billion covering 1.7 billion items of PPE.”

In July, it was reported that a million masks supplied to the NHS as high grade did not meet the correct level of protection.

The masks were assumed to be FFP3 type, which can be worn by staff in intensive care or when certain procedures are carried out that can generate aerosols, thereby risking the spread of Covid.

Tests carried out in February found that the masks failed FFP3 requirements.

Regarding these masks, Lord Bethell said in his latest written answer: “For all personal protective equipment (PPE), certification is checked through a technical assurance process before the products are released for distribution.

“Following information received from the National Health Service in February, we quarantined and recalled the affected products and reviewed the technical certification.

“As part of our investigation, we commissioned the British Standards Institution to test the masks.

“While the findings stated the affected masks failed to meet to FFP3 requirements, they passed all the testing requirements for an FFP2 respirator.

“The World Health Organisation recommends the use of N95 or FFP2 respirators for health workers performing aerosol-generating procedures – wearers should have been afforded protection.

“These masks are not recommended to be worn by patients. We have commissioned an independent root cause analysis investigation and we await the outcome.”