Round £1.4billion of private protecting gear (PPE) from a single agency has been destroyed or written off, it has emerged.
Whereas the inventory was manufactured to the correct commonplace, it has been disposed of after it was deemed surplus to necessities.
Critics yesterday branded the transfer a ‘staggering waste’ and a ‘colossal misuse of public funds’.
Figures from NHS Provide Chain present Northamptonshire-based firm Full Help Healthcare equipped at the very least 1.57 billion gadgets of private protecting gear that can by no means be used.
The corporate struck a £1.78 billion cope with ministers to provide face masks, aprons, eye safety and respirators in April 2020.
It’s understood to be the most important Covid-19 PPE order, accounting for 13 per cent of the Authorities’s whole spend.
Round 1.57billion items of private protecting gear value £1.4billion equipped by Full Help Healthcare has been destroyed or written off
There isn’t a suggestion the corporate has acted improperly.
Responding to the revelation, Labour’s well being secretary Wes Streeting mentioned: ‘We all know that billions of kilos have been wasted in the course of the pandemic on corruption and incompetence by the Conservatives, however that is the worst instance I’ve ever seen.
‘£1.4billion on one contract, paying for PPE that was by no means used, and Rishi Sunak’s fingerprints are throughout it.
‘That’s cash that might have been used to pay the salaries of 37,000 NHS nurses.
‘It’s staggering waste, and we’d like a full and frank account as to how a lot public cash was thrown down the bathroom.’
Daisy Cooper, deputy chief of the Liberal Democrats, mentioned: ‘That is simply the most recent in a sequence of damning revelations on the Conservatives’ file of mishandling Covid contracts.
‘As a substitute of this troubling sample of waste, shortcuts and lack of oversight, the general public deserve transparency on the true value of those failures.
‘The Liberal Democrats would take steps to make sure such a colossal misuse of public funds by no means occurs once more.’
NHS Provide Chain, which manages the distribution of medical provides to hospitals and different care suppliers, equipped the figures in response to Freedom of Data Act requests from the BBC.
The responses confirmed that of the two.02 billion gadgets of PPE supplied by Full Help Healthcare, solely 232 million gadgets have been dispatched to the NHS or different care settings.
It’s understood about 749 million gadgets have already been burned or destroyed, whereas an additional 825 million are categorised as extra inventory.
That is simply the most recent in a sequence of damning revelations on the Conservatives’ file of mishandling Covid contracts.
In accordance with the report, the Authorities had beforehand estimated about £85 million value of PPE secured below the contract wouldn’t be used.
The BBC reported that at the very least £100 million of further public cash has been spent on storing and incinerating the surplus inventory since its buy.
A Division of Well being and Social Care (DHSC) spokesperson mentioned: ‘We don’t recognise the £1.4 billion quoted.
‘Our place on PPE inventory is ready out within the division’s annual accounts as audited by the Nationwide Audit Workplace.
‘PPE was secured on the peak of the pandemic, competing in an overheated international market the place demand massively outstripped provide.
Labour shadow well being secretary Wes Streeting known as the contract a ‘staggering waste’ and mentioned a ‘full and frank’ account into the mishap was wanted
‘Practically half of all of the remaining inventory was offered, recycled, or donated by the division.
‘According to our discount of storage and disposal technique unused gadgets will probably be was vitality from waste which is able to see the division recoup additional prices.’
In January, DHSC accounts revealed some £9.9 billion of the £13.6 billion spent on PPE had been written off as some gadgets have been faulty or not appropriate, whereas others won’t be used earlier than their expiry date.
An accountability report by the Nationwide Audit Workplace mentioned that the division plans to get rid of ‘practically all’ of its present PPE inventory held in warehouses and containers.
On the time, Downing Avenue defended the losses by stressing the circumstances the Covid-19 pandemic brought on, akin to PPE being briefly provide resulting in a hike in prices.
