PPE failures left NHS staff poorly protected and wasted billions, Covid inquiry finds

The lives of NHS staff and patients were put at risk in the pandemic because of a lack of adequate personal protective equipment (PPE), the Covid inquiry has said.

The inquiry found that of the £14.9bn spent by the UK and devolved governments on PPE, nearly two thirds – almost £10bn – was wasted.

The UK entered the pandemic with its stockpile of masks, gowns and gloves in a “perilous state” with the country “simply not ready to compete” in the global race to get new supplies.

Healthcare staff were unable to properly protect themselves, or those in their care, from dangerous infections, the inquiry concluded.

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”.

When the cost of home testing kits and other equipment, such as ventilators, was included, the total amount spent by the government between January 2020 and June 2022 exceeded £42bn, the inquiry found.

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.