Matt Hancock reveals how 1 BILLION items of PPE have been trapped in a warehouse

Matt Hancock has unveiled how just one billion goods of PPE were trapped in a warehouse at the start out of the pandemic since it only experienced one particular doorway – that means lorries providing to hospitals and treatment properties had to queue up and be loaded 1 at a time.

In his new pandemic diaries, the former health and fitness secretary says he was ‘absolutely furious’ at the blunder, which led to delays sending hundreds of thousands of robes, masks and gloves to NHS personnel from a ‘huge storage unit’ in the North West of England in March 2020.

Special extracts from Mr Hancock’s reserve, staying serialised in the Everyday Mail and the Mail on Sunday, reveal that PPE provision to hospitals was presently a ‘total disaster’ by the commence of the 1st lockdown and that the NHS’s offer chain experienced ‘effectively collapsed’.

Mr Hancock also writes that, when Covid arrived in the United kingdom, ministers had ‘no very clear record’ of what PPE was in storage and soon discovered that some was worthless and previously ‘past its ‘best before’ date’.

A employee accumulating provides at the NHS’ National Procurement Warehouse at Canderside, Larkhall

Matt Hancock has disclosed how one billion products of PPE have been trapped in a warehouse at the commence of the pandemic since it only had a person doorway – that means lorries delivering to hospitals and care households had to queue up and be loaded a single at a time

On March 17, 2020, just six days prior to Boris Johnson declared the first nationwide lockdown, Mr Hancock wrote: ‘I’ve been advised we have a billion merchandise of PPE in a warehouse in the North West. ‘Hooray!’ I assumed. Just 1 challenge – we cannot get it out. It turns out that it truly is in a big storage unit with only 1 doorway. Ergo, only 1 lorry can pull up at a time. What a common government fall short.’

In just a fortnight, PPE deliveries to hospitals dried up, he said. At the time, some medical doctors and nurses had been pictured donning bin liners as aprons and ski goggles rather of protecting eyeglasses.

Mr Hancock explained seeing images of the staff members carrying bin liners just after Northwick Park Hospital in north London ran out of aprons on March 21, 2020.

He said: ‘My heart sank. It truly is totally unacceptable. In a natural way we’re staying accused of sending these courageous NHS staff to their likely doom by not providing them the security they have to have.

‘The absurdity of the scenario is that we actually have enough – we just can’t get it out of the damn warehouse.’

The next day the Military were being introduced in, he wrote.

‘The Military is carrying out a terrific work on PPE delivery. Now I have viewed what they can do, I want to get them concerned in the proposed ExCel Centre short term medical center. The PM is eager,’ he claimed.

Then, on March 30, the former overall health secretary said deliveries experienced ‘collapsed’. He stated that before the pandemic the Govt was giving ‘small amounts’ of PPE to 250 hospitals now it experienced to deliver it to those trusts as well as 56,000 GPs and dentists and all care households.

He wrote: ‘Hats off to individuals who bought a billion goods of PPE all those a long time back – I just wish they’d put far more considered into finding it out.

A client is transported out of an ambulance by medics donning PPE at the Royal London Hospital on January 2, 2021

‘Worse, it turns out a load of it is now out of date, and some package purchased around a ten years in the past will not conform to the most recent standards. Then you can find a batch which is basically however usable but has the improper ‘best before’ date on it. How we will persuade people today to use that is anyone’s guess.’

On the similar day, he writes: ‘The governing administration-owned corporation that will get PPE supplies to hospitals throughout the NHS has proficiently collapsed. Overall catastrophe. I’m definitely furious that the men and women who are meant to be industry experts in logistics have been not able to cope since there are also a lot of precise logistics. WTF?’

He extra: ‘We’ve been acquiring extra from China, but the rapid challenge is nonetheless lorry accessibility to our storage facility in the North West, in which you will find only a single door. Funnily more than enough, no one has been able to magic up any more entrances, so we are nevertheless caught with single lorryloads at a time.’

The scramble for PPE commenced in January 2020 when Mr Hancock reported General public Wellbeing England [PHE] explained to him there was a scarcity of lifesaving kit and some of it wanted to be binned because it was out of day.

On January 30, 2020, he wrote: ‘PHE’s audit of PPE arrived back and did not lighten my temper. There is certainly no obvious file of what is in the stockpile, and some kit is past its ‘best before’ date. I have instructed officers to function out what we need to have rapidly, and get in large portions.’

In the exact same entry Mr Hancock admits he preferred to drive all Britons airlifted from Wuhan – where by the initial Covid outbreak was detected – into quarantine, but was told by officials it would breach their human rights.

He said: ‘The Wuhan Brits are on their way again. I have experienced a showdown with officers and legal professionals over what to do with the evacuees when they land at RAF Brize Norton.

‘PHE thinks they should be greeted with a smile and a leaflet and asked nicely to go home and remain there for a couple of months. I mentioned they should really go straight into quarantine. PHE started hand-wringing about human legal rights.

‘OK,’ I explained, ‘let’s get them to indication a contract just before they board. In return for the flight, they concur to go into quarantine. No contract, no flight’. I was informed the contract wouldn’t be lawfully enforceable and was as well draconian. ‘Do it in any case,’ I instructed.’

They ended up set in quarantine for 14 days.

The Government’s failure to provide adequate PPE for the NHS sparked an amazing ‘gold rush’ in the first lockdown, when extremely rewarding contracts have been handed out to questionable companies and men and women as the Department of Health and fitness fought desperately to plug the shortages.

By July 2020, contracts worthy of £5.5billion had been agreed at speed without having a aggressive tender system as the pandemic swept Britain.

The Everyday Mail exposed at the time that several firms at the centre of the public funds bonanza savored a enormous payday since the NHS compensated 50 per cent far more for PPE than before the Covid crisis started.

Now there is a glut of PPE and the cost of storing unused pandemic protection in warehouses has soared to £770,000 for each day.

Ministers have been accused of allowing a ‘never-ending tale of governing administration waste’ in excess of the splurge of taxpayers’ money on private protecting gear, like gowns, masks and gloves.

There are 13.2billion products of PPE in storage – in contrast to the 17.3billion items shipped to frontline medical professionals and nurses for the duration of the pandemic. The charge of housing the products has risen from £700,000 a day in August to £770,000 in November.