PPE failures left NHS staff poorly protected and wasted £10bn, Covid inquiry finds
BBC News 2026-07-14 11:23:13
Context: The UK's Covid inquiry has found that planning failures and flaws led to NHS staff being forced to work without adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) during the pandemic, with the country's stockpile of masks, gowns, and gloves in a "perilous state". The inquiry's fifth report concluded that nearly two-thirds of the £14.9bn spent on PPE was wasted, totaling almost £10bn. The report's findings have significant implications for the UK's preparedness for future pandemics.
Key Facts
- The UK's emergency stockpile of PPE, meant to last at least 15 weeks before being replenished, was running out by the end of March 2020 as demand from hospitals soared.
- Only a third of the masks in England's pandemic stockpile were usable, while Scotland had no supplies of high-grade respiratory masks used in hospitals.
- The inquiry's chair, Baroness Hallett, described the waste of taxpayers' money as "vast" and said an overreliance on China to manufacture equipment left the UK "dangerously overexposed".
- A "VIP lane" was set up in April 2020 to award government PPE contracts, which the inquiry criticized as a "misguided attempt at prioritization" that "embedded unfairness in emergency procurement".
- The total amount spent by the government between January 2020 and June 2022 on PPE, home testing kits, and other equipment, such as ventilators, exceeded £42bn.