A significant boost to PPE supplies that should help meet demand
in the health and social care sectors has been announced by
Government today.
It has signed deals with more than 100 new suppliers from
around the world in a challenging global market, including
securing a further 3.7 billion gloves to help meet the expected
demand.
The government has also supported industry to significantly
boost domestic production with companies signing contracts to
manufacture over 2 billion items of PPE in the UK, including
facemasks, visors, gowns and aprons.
Since the start of the outbreak, over 1.48 billion items of
PPE have been delivered to the frontline in England, and tens of
millions more items distributed in Scotland, Wales, and Northern
Ireland. Just yesterday alone, 3.3 million masks, 11.8 million
aprons, 33,000 gowns and 36.2 million gloves were delivered to
health and social care settings in England.
As demand for PPE hit record levels during the global
pandemic, government and industry joined forces to build a PPE
distribution network from scratch. With the help of the Armed
Forces, the NHS Supply Chain now delivers PPE to 58,000 settings
including care homes, hospices and community
organisations.
Health and Social Care Secretary said:
“Last month, I set a national challenge to ensure we
continue to supply enough PPE to those on the frontline of this
battle.
“We have now signed deals with over 100 suppliers across
the world to secure more PPE, and at the same we have ramped up
domestic production. We have now ordered 2 billion pieces of PPE
from homegrown firms which is also great news for jobs and the
economy, and over 3 billion pieces from abroad.
“Worldwide demand for PPE has never been higher so I want
to thank Paul [Lord Deighton] for his work in ensuring that PPE
continues to be delivered to where it is needed.
The UK has worked with numerous international partners to
procure additional PPE supplies throughout the pandemic. A new
team has been established to secure new supply lines from across
the world and will continue to strengthen and diversify the
supply chain.
We’re rapidly progressing over 14,500 offers from suppliers
and ensuring they meet the safety and quality standards that our
NHS staff need, as well as prioritising offers of larger volumes.
We have already contracted over 100 new suppliers able to deliver
at the scale and pace the UK requires.
Domestic production is simultaneously being ramped up to
unlock new avenues to get PPE to the frontline as part of the
government’s ‘Make’ programme, headed up by Lord , who is
leading the Government’s efforts to secure PPE
and ensure this gets to where it is needed. As part of this, he
is driving forward coordination of the end-to-end process design
and manufacture of new domestic PPE supplies.
The government is in contact with over 350 potential UK
manufacturers and contracts have been signed to
manufacture over 2 billion items of PPE in the UK.
This includes a deal for 70 million face masks
agreed with company Honeywell this month; Don &
Low manufacturing 12 million metres squared of fabric for gowns
over the next 6 months; and Jaguar Land Rover manufacturing
14,000 visors a week for healthcare staff.
Lord said:
“As unprecedented demand for PPE continues around the
world, British industry has stepped forward to strengthen the
UK’s response and increase PPE supplies.
“We have already secured millions of PPE items through
deals with British industry, and continue to work with hundreds
of potential manufacturers to further bolster our domestic supply
chain now and in the future.”
From this week, GPs and small care homes can also register
on the PPE Portal, a new online portal developed in collaboration
with eBay to help primary and social care providers to order
critical PPE, as it is scaled up nationally.
The PPE Portal has been tested with the sector and is now
being scaled up nationally over the coming
weeks. During this phase of the roll-out, GPs
and small residential and domiciliary social care services will
be invited to register on the portal.
We are focussing on small care providers because our data
shows that, although they account for half of all care provision,
they seem to be less likely to be registered with wholesalers.
It’s therefore important that we ensure that they have the option
of quickly joining the portal should they need to.
This forms part of our national effort to ensure critical
PPE continues to be delivered to those on the frontline.
ENDS
Notes to editors
-
A small residential social care provider is defined as
one with 24 beds or fewer, whilst a small domiciliary care
provider has 99 clients or fewer.
