Price of body bags up 1310 per cent: Initial govt mistakes cost taxpayer extra £10bn
Inadequate stockpiles of personal protective equipment (PPE) led to the government spending approximately £10bn extra procuring additional items, a report by the National Audit Office (NAO) has found.
Demand for PPE soared in England from March 2020, when NHS, care workers, and key workers in other industries started to require protection from the Covid-19 virus.
Between February and July 2020 the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) spent £12.5bn on 32 billion items of PPE. Huge increases in the price of PPE compared with 2019 due to the global surge in demand and restrictions on exports meant the price of respirator masks year-on-year saw a 166% increase, and there was a 1310% increase in the price of body bags.
Had the government been able to buy PPE at 2019 prices, expenditure on PPE to July 2020 would have been £2.5bn – £10bn less than the government actually paid.
Existing government stockpiles of PPE were intended for an influenza pandemic, and did not hold all the equipment that proved to be required during the Covid-19 pandemic, like gowns, according to the NAO.
The government tried to use its stockpiles to meet demand, but there were difficulties distributing PPE and a lack of information on how much stock each NHS trust needed. To manage the situation, the DHSC created a parallel supply chain and made orders worth £7bn for 14.6 billion items of PPE by the end of May.
Despite government attempts to rectify the situation, the new supply chain could barely satisfy local requirements because of the time lag between ordering PPE and it being available to use. Of the 32 billion items of PPE procured between February and July, just 2.6 billion items were delivered to front-line organisations. Demand for PPE was so high in April and May that stock levels were negligible for most types of PPE.
Some PPE also failed to meet the required standards. According to a previous report by the NAO the government spent more than £200m procuring the wrong sort of masks from suppliers.
126 health workers dead
Adult social care providers told the NAO they were not adequately supported by the government in obtaining PPE and were very close to running out.
The sector received approximately 331 million items of PPE from the government between March and July – just 10% of their estimated need.
Surveys of care workers, doctors and nurses also showed significant numbers considered that they did not have access to the PPE they needed and were not adequately protected. Employers have reported 126 deaths and 8,152 diagnosed cases of COVID-19 among health and care workers linked to occupational exposure.
NAO head Gareth Davies said: “As PPE stockpiles were inadequate for the pandemic, government needed to take urgent action to boost supplies. Once it recognised the gravity of the situation it worked hard to source PPE, but most of these orders were not received in time for the first wave of the pandemic and many front-line workers reported shortages of PPE during that time. The price of PPE increased dramatically, and that alone has cost the taxpayer around £10bn.
“There are important lessons for government to learn as it continues to tackle the pandemic. This includes fully understanding not just the requirements of the NHS, but also social care providers so that they can be better supported in future.”
The DHSC and cabinet office has been contacted for comment.