Inadequate protective equipment put NHS staff and patients at risk during the pandemic, the UK Covid inquiry has found. Its latest report says healthcare workers could not properly protect themselves or those in their care from infection.
The inquiry found that £9.9bn of PPE was written off because it went unused or became outdated. That amounted to about two-thirds of the £14.9bn the government spent on PPE. Inquiry chair Baroness Hallett criticised the scale of the waste and said the UK entered the pandemic with dangerously depleted supplies of masks, gowns and gloves.
By the end of March 2020, the emergency stockpile was running low as hospital demand rose. Only a third of masks in England’s pandemic stockpile were usable; care homes, GP surgeries and pharmacies had been expected to obtain their own PPE.
Hallett also criticised the priority route for PPE offers linked to people with political connections, saying it should not be repeated. The inquiry found no evidence that ministers or officials engaged in cronyism or corruption when awarding final contracts.
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