Gowns for front-line staff were not included in the national pandemic stockpile of personal protective equipment, procurement chiefs have been told.
Trust procurement leads have
raised concerns over dwindling gown supplies. Health Care Supply Association chief officer Alan Hoskins tweeted he could not order the products through NHS Supply Chain, even after escalating the matter to NHS England.
Mr Hoskins’ tweet on Sunday, which has
since been deleted, said: “What a day, no gowns NHS Supply Chain. Rang every number escalated to NHS England, just got message back — no stock, can’t help, can send you a PPE pack. Losing the will to live, god help us all.”
Senior procurement leads told
HSJ that major trusts, including Barts Health in London, ran out of gowns at the end of last week. Calling the supplies situation “extremely bad,” one source said there were “virtually no gowns left in the system” and no communication from NHS Supply Chain as to when more would be available.
One trust procurement director told
HSJ: “Senior people have been repeating the line that ‘there is no shortage of supplies, just a few minor transport difficulties’ for a few weeks now - and that is not helpful. It is not as if they need to look too far -
HSJ and other media have been pointing it out constantly. The supplies situation is still extremely bad. The HCSA posted a tweet about the critical gown shortage yesterday - only to receive a series of calls from the centre - not to update, but to ask them to take the tweet down.”
