Audit report on the Cost of PPE

There has been press coverage and comment in social media of a National Audit Office report on the cost of personal protective equipment (PPE) during the pandemic. 

  • The NAO’s found that all the NHS providers audited ‘were always able to get what they needed in time’ thanks to the herculean effort of Government, NHS, Armed Forces, civil servants and industry to deliver around 5 billion items of PPE to the frontline at record speed. 
     
  • The government should not apologise for going to every length to ensure that healthcare workers had the protection they needed to do their jobs safely and properly in the height of an unprecedented pandemic. Yes, this cost taxpayers money, and it cost more than might have been required in more normal circumstances. But the lives of front-line health staff and carers were on the line.
  • You cannot reasonably both complain that doctors, nurses and other front-line carers had their lives put at risk because they didn't have enough PPE, and at the same time complain that the government spent too much money trying to get PPE for them. That doesn't stop some parts of the press and the opposition parties from making both criticisms at once but such a position makes no sense. 
     
  • With almost 32 billion items of PPE ordered the government is confident we can provide a continuous supply to the frontline over the coming months and respond to future eventualities.

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