Desperate nurses forced to wear bin bags and shower caps during Covid as £10bn wasted on PPE
The Royal College of Nursing said the fact staff were forced to hastily repurpose ordinary household attempts should be “marks of shame” for successive governments
A leading nursing union has condemned the “total failure” of planning which led some staff in Scotland forced to wear shower caps or bin bags in a “desperate” attempt to protect themselves during the Covid-19 pandemic, amid a damning report into the lack of adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) that was available.
The Royal College of Nursing said the fact staff were forced to hastily repurpose ordinary household attempts should be “marks of shame” for successive governments that left the health service “unprepared” for the pandemic.
It hit out at the “colossal waste and inadequacies” detailed in the new report by the official UK Covid inquiry, and stressed that the shortfalls “must never happen again.”
The report from the inquiry’s chair, Baroness Heather Hallett, found that the scramble to buy PPE during the pandemic saw the UK waste almost £10 billion of taxpayers’ money.
In the fifth report of her inquiry, Baroness Heather Hallett criticised the “vast” waste in pandemic procurement, amounting to £9.9bn - two-thirds of the £14.9bn the UK and devolved governments spent on PPE. Approximately £8.35 million of healthcare equipment, including testing kits and PPE, was written off in Scotland between 2020 and 2023.
She said: “The waste of taxpayers’ money was vast. The public must be able to trust that their money is being spent with propriety, fairness and transparency.
“Public confidence - so important in an emergency - was undermined by failures in procurement.”
Baroness Hallett criticised the controversial “VIP lane,” which prioritised offers of PPE from those with political connections, as a “misguided” and “unfair” process that undermined public confidence in procurement. But she said there was “no evidence of cronyism or corruption” by ministers or officials when awarding contracts.
The excoriating report found that in Scotland, there were significant quantities of expired stock across a range of PPE types, meaning that equipment was unusable.
Between February and March 2020, due to nearly all of their stock having expired, the devolved administrations had to rely on England to provide them with FFP3 masks, but even these were to reach the end of their shelf life by June 2020.
By April 2020, the stockpile of PPE equipment in Scotland was very low. NHS National Services Scotland held less than one day’s worth of long-sleeved gowns and FFP3 masks and only two days’ worth of visors, with some NHS boards reporting shortages of PPE.
In her report, Baroness Hallett found the UK as whole was underprepared for the pandemic, with existing stockpiles of PPE “in a perilous state,” with large quantities of expired equipment.
She found only a third of the masks in England’s pre-pandemic stockpile were usable, while Scotland had no supplies of the top-level FFP3 masks needed by healthcare professionals.
The report describes a procurement system working under “immense pressure,” with no effective system for triaging offers of PPE.
That system was “deluged” with offers after then Prime Minister Boris Johnson and then UK health secretary Matt Hancock issued a “call to arms” for PPE in April 2020.
Officials told the inquiry the call to arms had “made matters worse”, with the procurement system receiving 25,000 offers over 15 weeks, including 300 offers a day at some points.
Against that background, officials established a “high priority” or “VIP” lane that prioritised offers that had been referred via politicians, healthcare leaders and others.
Baroness Hallett described the VIP lane as “a misguided attempt at prioritisation that embedded unfairness in emergency procurement” that saw offers from politically-connected individuals more likely to receive a contract than others.
She said contracts awarded through the VIP lane were “more expensive” and had more “contract performance issues” than those awarded through the normal route.
The report found that, of the 32 people who referred successful offers to the VIP lane, 15 had a connection with the Conservative Party and none came from any other party, although politicians from other parties were referred to it.
Baroness Hallett said her inquiry had found “no evidence of cronyism or corruption on the part of ministers or officials in the final decision of whether to award or reject a contract”, but noted the system was “inherently biased towards those with connections to the UK government”.
She said: “This heightened the risk of abuse. It damaged the reputation of those involved in procurement during the pandemic and undermined public trust in the UK government’s emergency procurement system, in the UK government itself and in its response to the pandemic. The High Priority Lane should not be repeated.”
Rose Gallagher, the RCN’s professional lead for infection prevention and control throughout the pandemic, said: “This report is a damning indictment of just how badly nursing staff were let down. The total failure to plan meant stockpiles of PPE were too low, while much of the equipment meant to protect our profession didn’t fit or work effectively.
“That so many staff were forced to repurpose shower caps, or wear bin bags in desperate attempts to protect themselves, should be marks of shame for the successive governments that left us so unprepared.”
She added: “When concerns were raised about protective equipment by those delivering care, they were regularly ignored and placed at terrible risk, with false assurances given from the highest level of government. Instead of providing fit-for-purpose guidance and equipment, ministers stood on doorsteps to clap.”
Nicola Brook, a solicitor at law firm Broudie Jackson Canter, which represents the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK campaign group, attacked the inquiry’s findings.
She said: “The report reveals the shocking level of corruption and cronyism at the heart of government, resulting in billions of pounds lost as companies sought to profit while thousands died.”
During the inquiry’s investigation into procurement, Baroness Hallett also heard evidence on PPE Medpro, which was ordered to repay £148m to the UK government last year after the High Court found it had breached a contract to supply millions of surgical gowns.
But the report did not include her findings on Medpro due to an ongoing National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation into the firm, which is linked to Conservative peer Baroness Michelle Mone via her husband Doug Barrowman. Both Lady Mone, 54, and Mr Barrowman, 61, deny wrongdoing.
The inquiry has said it will release its findings on Medpro once any criminal proceedings had concluded.
Discussing fraud in procurement more widely, the inquiry found the pace of procurement reduced the amount of time available for due diligence - in some cases to just four hours - and thus increased the risk of fraud.
The inquiry heard that the UK government estimated £256m was lost to fraud relating to PPE procurement. But it also found that the investigation into PPE Medpro is the only criminal process relating to alleged PPE procurement fraud in the whole of the UK.
The NCA probe into Medpro remains ongoing, and in June 2024, the agency said an unnamed 46-year-old man from Barnet, north London, had been arrested as part of the investigation. No criminal charges have been brought.
In a statement, Baroness Hallett also mentioned some “positives” from the pandemic response, saying businesses and the public “rallied enthusiastically to help” and praising the Army’s help in organising “an extraordinary logistical operation”.
She added: “Although the lack of planning caused an unnecessary delay in procuring the PPE and other equipment that healthcare workers and others desperately needed, it was a positive feature of the subsequent procurement response that key healthcare equipment was obtained at the speed and scale the crisis demanded.”
A Downing Street spokeswoman said: “Today’s report obviously makes for difficult reading, and we’re grateful to Baroness Hallett and her team for their thorough and important work on these issues.
“The pandemic had a profound and lasting impact across our society, and this government is committed to learning the lessons of the Covid inquiry so that we are protected and prepared for the future. And we will, of course, carefully consider the inquiry’s recommendations in detail, and we will respond in due course.”
A Scottish government spokesperson said: “The Scottish government welcomes the publication of this report and will take the necessary time to fully and carefully consider its findings and recommendations.
“During the pandemic, public bodies were required to procure critical goods and services at unprecedented speed in rapidly changing circumstances and significant pressures on global supply chains. The Scottish government remains committed to achieving the right balance between speed, resilience, transparency and value for money when responding to emergency situations and will provide a detailed response to the report in due course, in line with the timescales set out by the inquiry’s chair.
“At all times during the pandemic, the Scottish government’s overarching objective was to protect the population from the harms of Covid-19 and to minimise the loss of life. The Scottish government continues to extend sincere and deepest condolences to the many thousands who have lost loved ones and who continue to experience the profound impacts of Covid-19.”
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