Doctors’ lives were put at risk during the covid pandemic because of shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) and a lack of adequate planning, the UK Covid-19 Inquiry has concluded.
The inquiry chair, Heather Hallett, also criticised the “vast” waste of taxpayers’ money. Of the £14.9bn spent on PPE by the UK government and devolved administrations during the pandemic, nearly two thirds—almost £10bn—went unused.
“These figures demand a fundamental change in how the UK prepares for emergency procurement,” said Hallett.1 Her scathing report, focusing on procurement, found that the plans in place to respond to a pandemic were inadequate, and those that did exist had not been properly stress tested.
The existing stockpile of PPE and other equipment for the UK was “inadequate to meet demand,” and the UK government and devolved administrations were “wholly unprepared” to rapidly increase the scale and speed of procurement and distribution operations, said Hallett.
The lack of plans and infrastructure meant that officials had been unable to respond with sufficient speed and efficiency to problems such as which and how much equipment to buy, at what prices, and how it should be distributed. This had resulted in overbuying and the purchase of substandard equipment that had to be destroyed, said the report.
“The technology and data systems for emergency procurement and distribution were outdated. These were systemic failures that could have been avoided,” said Hallett.
One of Hallett’s main recommendations (box) is for the UK to diversify its international supplier base for PPE and healthcare equipment, which is mainly sourced from manufacturers in China, and to increase its own domestic industrial resilience. The UK should also invest in high quality information systems and modern technology when buying and distributing PPE, she concluded.
3 yrs ago, The Guardian reported where more dubious tax payers funds left the UK to the US:
US banker paid £73m dividend in 2021 after firm won millions in UK Covid contracts
This article is more than 3 years old
Banks Bourne, sole owner of Tanner Pharma in North Carolina, took sum from Tanner’s UK arm, records show
Sam Bright
Thu 25 May 2023 15.00 BSTShare
An American banker was paid a £73m dividend in 2021 after his firm won hundreds of millions in Covid contracts, figures show.
Banks Bourne, the sole owner of the medical company Tanner Pharma, took the sum from Tanner’s UK division, Companies House records show.
While Tanner Pharma registered profits of £1.4m in 2019, this figure hit £38.8m in 2020 and £64m in 2021. According to the company’s latest accounts, released in March, this financial growth was driven largely by a Covid windfall, with the firm paid huge sums by the UK government.
Turnover increased from £192m in 2020 to £468.5m in 2021, or by 144%, the latest accounts state. They say “this increase was largely the result of higher-volume contracts” with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) as the company “supported the UK government’s urgent response to Sars-CoV-2 pandemic”.
Tanner Pharma’s profit margin therefore was 19.8% in 2020 and 13.7% in 2021.
Government records show that in 2020 and 2021 Tanner Pharma was awarded contracts worth £865m from the UKHSA and the DHSC for the provision of lateral flow tests. The largest contract during this period was valued at up to £243m – more than 84 times the firm’s total turnover of £2.9m in 2019.
The company’s accounts show that it earned 98.3% of its turnover in 2021 and 93.7% in 2020 from the UK government.
Tanner Pharma continued to be awarded UK Covid contracts in 2022, with its largest single contract coming in February 2022, worth up to £595m for the provision of lateral flow tests to the UKHSA. In total, the firm was awarded UK Covid contracts worth just shy of £1.5bn – the fourth largest total of any firm.
The £8.5 million flat purchased by financier Tim Horlick in London has been frozen as part of a criminal investigation linked to a controversial personal protective equipment (PPE) deal. Horlick, 64, is the founder of Ayanda Capital, the company awarded a significant government contract to supply PPE during the pandemic. This deal, valued at £255 million, has come under scrutiny due to allegations regarding the quality of the masks supplied.
Retired, living in the Scottish Borders after living most of my life in cities in England. I can now indulge my interest in all aspects of living close to nature in a wild landscape. I live on what was once the Iapetus Ocean which took millions of years to travel from the Southern Hemisphere to here in the Northern Hemisphere. That set me thinking and questioning and seeking answers.
In 1998 I co-wrote Millennium Countdown (US)/ A Business Guide to the Year 2000 (UK) see https://www.abebooks.co.uk/products/isbn/9780749427917
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