PPE supply failed and conmen struck in Dudley, says report
Lifesaving supplies of PPE were delayed at the beginning of the pandemic as supply chains failed while councils dealt with conmen selling unsafe products.
A stark report to Dudley Council has revealed that while government stocks failed more than 90 per cent of offers to sell personal protective equipment to West Midlands authorities were ‘spurious’.
Examples of how conmen tried to cash in included demanding pre-payment for items that were never delivered and using false certificates to ‘prove’ products met safety standards.
Saying Dudley Council now has sufficient stocks of genuine PPE, the report shows how unscrupulous companies tried to profit out of a worldwide shortage of life-saving equipment.
Proposing a series of recommendations to prepare for a second outbreak, Rose Younger, Dudley’s director of commercial and customer services, said that in December 2019 council officers were told supplies of PPE would meet national flu pandemic stocks.
But by March this year, NHS trusts and councils were forced to compete with each other to get the supplies.
In a report to Dudley’s health and adult social care scrutiny committee, Ms Younger says: “As the pandemic took hold and the national supply chain failed, it quickly became clear that sufficient PPE was not available in the UK supply chain, and would not be for some time.
"There seemed to be no automatic, national, organised, prompt response to the urgent need for PPE.
“In the early days (March 2020) of the pandemic the main requirement was for compliant fluid resistant masks, gloves and aprons.
"Due to the delay in commencing PPE procurement we were then competing with the NHS, and every other council to obtain PPE.
Significant
"Prices rose exponentially as a result of the massive and sudden increase in demand and the inability of the national system to supply.”
In April, it was reported that one Wednesbury care provider saw prices increases by almost 10,000 percent. Karl Silvester, Awarding Care’s registered manager, said his company was forced to approach alternative suppliers after its normal provider had been told it could only sell to the NHS.
He said: “We have gone out to the market and been quoted £15 for box of hundred gloves that normally sells at £2-3 and £2 each for a plastic apron. They are usually two pence each.”
Ms Younger added: “Unfortunately, crises always create opportunities for fraud, and encourages profit seeking fraudsters to enter markets. We became inundated with offers of PPE from spurious local, national and international suppliers.
“The work required to establish veracity of these offers was significant and detracted from the work required to procure compliant PPE.
"We have spent £1 million on PPE to date with a further £1 million allocated for the future.”
Councillors will discuss the report next week.
