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    Drivers tell of chaos at UK's privately run PPE stockpile Archived Message

    Posted by Sinister Burt on May 15, 2020, 12:05 pm

    Yet again the wondrous efficiency of the neoliberal economy shines through

    https://www.dumptheguardian.com/world/2020/may/14/coronavirus-uk-privately-run-ppe-stockpile-chaos-movianto

    "Allegations raise questions over Movianto’s management of government stocks during coronavirus outbreak

    The private firm contracted to run the government’s stockpile of personal protective equipment (PPE) was beset by “chaos” at its warehouse that may have resulted in delays in deploying vital supplies to healthcare workers, according to sources who have spoken to the Guardian and ITV News.

    The allegations from delivery drivers and other well–placed sources raise questions about whether Movianto, the subsidiary of a US healthcare giant, was able to adequately manage and distribute the nation’s emergency stockpile of PPE for use in a pandemic.

    The investigation by the Guardian and ITV News also established that in previous years Movianto temporarily stored the emergency pandemic equipment in a smoke-damaged warehouse that was found to contain asbestos.

    The stockpile was later relocated to a giant, purpose-built warehouse elsewhere in Merseyside, where it was being held when the government realised that supplies were urgently needed to respond to the Covid-19 outbreak.

    However, in late March, after the company was ordered to begin distributing PPE and amid complaints of dire shortages in hospitals, the British army had to be scrambled to Movianto’s warehouse to help organise and deploy the PPE.

    According to delivery drivers responsible for delivering PPE to hospitals that month, Movianto was not ready to get the deliveries out to hospitals as demand for PPE rose, owing to “bad management” of the stock and short-staffing at the warehouse.

    “It became more chaotic as time went on,” said Asif Hussain, a former policeman who was one of the drivers working at the warehouse in March. “Vans weren’t loaded, so you’d wait around for several hours for the vans to be loaded and sometimes they’d give you the wrong equipment to deliver to the hospitals.”

    “Nobody knew what they were doing,” said another driver, Ian Rawson, brought in to deliver medical supplies in March. “If this was so urgent to get out, why did they not send more people to get the stuff ready for us?”

    A senior NHS procurement official said they understood that upon arrival at the Movianto facility the army was confronted with a chaotic situation and had to reorganise the stock. “They had to unwrap it all and break it down into digestible chunks and start shipping it out on army trucks to hospitals.”

    A spokesman for Movianto said the military deployment was “not because of any shortcomings in Movianto’s performance”, insisting the company had “executed the agreed plan” to mobilise the stockpile without any delay and in accordance with its contractual obligations.

    A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said: “The pandemic influenza stockpile has always been readily deployable and it is entirely false to claim otherwise. There has been no damage to any of the stockpile and it has been safely and securely stored at all times.”

    The department has repeatedly said the UK was “one of the most prepared countries in the world for pandemics”.

    The health minister Edward Argar declined to comment on Movianto’s handling of the contract, but stressed in an interview with ITV News that the Covid-19 outbreak massively increased demand on the supply chain.

    “When we see the scale of the challenge and when we address that as we have done, you have to put in place additional measures to make sure that the PPE gets to where it’s needed,” he said. “And I have to say that the military have done a fantastic job for this country, as they always do.”

    At the time that the army was deployed to Movianto’s warehouse, the NHS was facing widespread PPE shortages as hospitals turned to schools for donations of science goggles while some NHS staff made improvised masks out of snorkels and bought kit from hardware stores.

    Last month the Guardian revealed that Movianto was sold to a French company in the midst of the pandemic, after a turbulent 18 months that included legal disputes with its landlord. Both Movianto and the DHSC say the legal disputes and the sale of the firm had no impact on its storage or distribution of PPE."

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