Asked by
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to
ensure that there is a sufficient supply of personal protective
equipment for (1) hospitals, and (2) care homes, in the event of
a second wave of cases of COVID-19.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health
and Social Care () (Con) [V]
My Lords, we have made our supply chains more resilient by
massively expanding both our supply from overseas and our
domestic manufacturing capability. We are now confident in our
supply of PPE to meet the needs of health and social care over
the next seven-day and 90-day horizons and are looking further
ahead. We continue to model future demand from health and care
services to cover the approach of winter and bring resilience to
the supply chain.
(Lab)
[V]
My Lords, the Government are being warned, urgently, on all sides
to prepare for a second wave of Covid this winter. I hear what
the Minister has said but last week, the Public Accounts
Committee found that the Government are still not treating the
supply of PPE with similar urgency. Will the Minister now commit
to publishing a detailed plan by September, as the committee has
asked for, explaining what exactly will be different, so that
mistakes are not repeated and health and care workers are better
protected?
[V]
My Lords, I completely share the concerns of the noble Baroness,
Lady Andrews, about a second peak and we are working to prepare
for that. I respect the views of the PAC and emphasise that our
approach to PPE is incredibly serious. A huge amount of work has
gone into it and a huge amount of progress has been made.
(Con)
[V]
Can my noble friend identify what lessons have been learnt so far
from both the quantity and quality of the PPE that has been used
in homes and hospitals? What action will be taken to minimise
cross-infection for those who have to go into people’s domestic
homes and who often work in more than one location?
[V]
My Lords, the big lesson from Covid is that the quantity of PPE
needed for a disease like this is massively more that could ever
have been expected, particularly compared with our past
experience. It has hit every country in the world and has hit the
global supply chains incredibly hard. A benign lesson is that
British manufacturers are capable of stepping up the challenge,
and I salute their work. Contamination from itinerant workers was
always one of the greatest challenges of the care sector, and we
have put in a huge amount of work and financial resources to
avoid the need for workers who move from home to home.
(CB)
[V]
My Lords, when I asked the Minister on 24 June to ensure that
interpreters in the NHS would not be forgotten when stockpiling
PPE in case of a second wave, he very helpfully told the House
that he would continue to press the department on this. So, I am
mystified that I still have not had a reply to my simple question
of 12 May, asking who is responsible for providing PPE for
freelance NHS interpreters. Can the Minister enlighten me today?
[V]
The noble Baroness is entirely right to champion the role of
interpreters. Their role in the recent Leicester lockdown has
been incredibly important: there could not have been an incident
that better highlights the importance of language skills in the
healthcare setting, and I pay tribute to the noble Baroness for
championing those. The care of interpreters is an incredibly
complex question and entirely depends on where they are sited. It
is the responsibility of individual trusts to look after
interpreters in hospital settings but, in other settings, it may
be that of other organisations.
(Lab) [V]
Do the Government now accept that there is no further excuse for
secret, non-competitive contracts for PPE channelled through the
friends of Ministers and special advisers? There are thousands of
UK companies ready and willing to bid for contracts to produce
PPE—why not use them? China may not be reliable in the future.
[V]
I completely reject the implications of the noble Lord’s
question. While British companies have stepped forward and we are
pleased to have made many contracts, there are not, I am afraid
to say, thousands of domestic producers capable of providing the
billions of items we need in the British health service. I pay
respect to all the companies that moved quickly and contracted
under difficult circumstances for major contracts. I also salute
the companies overseas with which we have good relationships, and
which remain our trusted partners.
(LD)
[V]
My Lords, alongside PPE we must have a comprehensive test and
trace system to prevent a second wave. Today, the Health Service
Journal reports that virtually all the top team of test and trace
are leaving, and that McKinsey is contracted to review the
governance and entire form of test and trace. Why would the
Government bring in a multimillion-pound consultancy firm to
review a so-called world-beating test and trace system?
[V]
My Lords, turnover of the test and trace team is an inevitable
consequence of an organisation that was set up using temporary
staff, many of whom are on short contracts and need to return to
their previous roles. It is regrettable, but I owe them a huge
debt of thanks for the work they have done. The work of McKinsey
is focused on governance, not on HR. It was commissioned some
time ago and it is an entirely proper and regular appointment.
(Lab)
My Lords, I refer back to what the noble Lord said about the
amount of PPE that is needed. It is actually the case that in the
2016 report it was signalled that we would need a gigantic
quantity. I am sure we would all agree that we need better
organised and effective preparation if there is to be a second
wave, and the centralised purchasing of PPE, managed by local
public health agencies, will ensure effective distribution. I
want to ask about the care sector. Does the noble Lord believe it
is acceptable or wise for care homes to have to pay over the top
prices and compete for PPE? Does this not put the wider public
health interests at risk? What steps is the Minister taking to
end discrimination against the care sector in the supply of PPE
and ensure essential protection for care workers, residents and
visitors?
[V]
My Lords, it is a reality that the cost of PPE has gone through
the roof. There is nothing that I or the Government can do about
that. It is something we are going to have to live with and
budget for: it is part of the new reality. As to the procurement
of PPE, as the noble Baroness knows, within the care sector it
was previously the arrangement that local providers would source
their own PPE. The Government have stepped in to bring resilience
and confidence to that supply chain and to offer alternative
sources of supply to local care homes. We have moved emphatically
and sought to bring both affordability and resilience to the
supply chain.
(Con) [V]
My Lords, I was going to ask my noble friend about private sector
provision of PPE, but I shall move on to something which may be
even more significant—the hopeful news of developments in Oxford
scientists identifying a vaccine against Covid. Is my noble
friend able to offer any update on that news? Can he set out what
role the private sector has in the development and, we hope,
eventual manufacture of any such vaccine?
[V]
My noble friend is entirely right: the news from Oxford appears
to be incredibly encouraging. Coronaviruses are typically very
difficult to provide vaccines for, but the Oxford team is clearly
confident that it is making serious progress. It has a contract
with AstraZeneca, which is its private sector partner in the UK
and globally. The administration of that vaccine, should it be
successful, or of any other successful vaccine, is a matter of
huge national importance. Thanks to Kate Bingham and the Vaccine
Taskforce, we are putting a huge amount of work in to ensure that
the administration of that vaccine into the arms of the country
will be done in a speedy and efficient fashion.
(CB) [V]
My Lords, the noble Lord, , was appointed
last April, with much fanfare, to resolve a national PPE crisis.
Is he now responsible for ensuring adequate PPE, both clinical
and other types—particularly for care homes, to deal with any
second wave and the expected higher numbers infected through the
winter months—for the whole of the UK, or just for England?
[V]
My noble friend is still in
place: I spoke to him recently. His impact has been immense, and
I owe him a huge debt of thanks for that. He is particularly
focused on the “make” leg of the PPE project, and within that he
has recruited firms such as Medicom, Redwood, Photocentric,
Ramfoam, Elite and Macdonald & Taylor Healthcare—British
manufacturers that are, between them, providing hundreds of
millions of items of PPE.
