The Lifeboat News
[ Message Archive | The Lifeboat News ]

    Apparently there were three RAF planes waiting... Archived Message

    Posted by Ken Waldron on April 20, 2020, 11:54 pm, in reply to "Fwiw RAF plane has gone to Turkey to pick up the delayed gear ..."

    ...and have been so for several days...whilst the stuff they are waiting on is about a three day supply:

    Government’s emergency shipment of PPE ‘will be used up by NHS in three days’

    Harrison Jones Saturday 18 Apr



    The Government has admitted that there are shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the NHS – but a newly announced ‘very large’ shipment is only likely to last the health service three days. Amid an outcry around supply to medics fighting coronavirus, Local Government Secretary Robert Jenrick conceded that gowns, masks and aprons were in ‘short supply’ amid ‘extremely challenging’ circumstances. Speaking at the daily press conference on the Covid-19 outbreak, Mr Jenrick said ‘a very large consignment’ of 84 tonnes of PPE – including 400,000 gowns – is due to arrive in the UK from Turkey on Sunday. However, he did not reject a suggestion at the briefing that the gowns only equated to around three days of supplies – with around 155,000 being used daily. He continued: ‘Demand is also very high. We are working with British manufacturers to ensure that they can make a contribution, and you’ve heard of some of the more prominent ones like Burberry and Barbour but there are many SMEs as well being involved in that, and my department is also involved in trying to ensure that the supplies that we have get out, not just to the NHS, critical though that is, but also to social care, often to smaller establishments like care homes, all across the country.’
    Yesterday it was revealed that medical staff have been told to reuse gowns or turn to ‘flimsy aprons’ because supplies had got so low. Asked about PPE, Professor Stephen Powis, national medical director of NHS, said: ‘I’m a doctor, I’ve worked for many years on the front line and I can absolutely assure you for me and my clinical colleagues, this is very personal.


    ‘These are my friends, colleagues, extended family.’ He said the Government was working ‘incredibly hard’ to deliver PPE to frontline health staff, including the shipment arriving on Sunday, but stressed there was a ‘global emergency’ and strains on supply chains across the world. He added: ‘The Government does stockpile PPE for pandemics, and that has been incredibly important and useful in our response to this.’


    https://metro.co.uk/2020/04/18/governments-emergency-shipment-ppe-will-used-nhs-three-days-12576010/

    Message Thread: