MILLIONS of face masks to protect Scottish health and care workers against coronavirus could be stuck in limbo at Prestwick airport for a week, it has emerged.
The consignment arrived from China on Friday with the labels inside the boxes instead of outside, as required by the NHS.
The vital cargo also included 100,000 testing kits for Covid-19.
The Scottish Sun, which first reported the hold-up, said labels for the 200,000 boxes involved were now being sent from China so that they could be distributed here.
It came as the death toll in Scotland from laboratory-confirmed cases of Covid-19 increase by 18 overnight to 1,249.
Health Secretary Jeane Freeman confirmed the Scottish Government knew in advance that inadequate labelling might be a problem, but decided it was better to have the kit in Scotland than China and resolve any issues here rather than “long-distance”.
She said sending drivers to pick up the kit on Friday who were then turned away had been “a sensible bit of forward-planning”, in case they had been able to collect it.
The delay is particularly awkward for the Scottish Government as it had boasted about the consignment of personal protective equipment arriving.
On Friday, Nicola Sturgeon said it was an example of the Scottish Government being ready to look overseas “to source the equipment we need”.
She said: “I can confirm that, just an hour ago, another of those consignments arrived at Prestwick. It includes 100,000 testing kits, as well as another 10 million face masks.”
However drivers sent to collect the kit for depots in NHS Lanarkshire were refused access.
At the Scottish Government’s daily press briefing, Ms Freeman was asked about the blunder.
She said: “This is a really important shipment for us. It contains 10m fluid-resistant masks. It also has 20,000 testing kits that are important.
“Also in the shipment is a million of those fluid-resistant masks which are bound for NHS Wales. So it is important.
“What we need is that it was possible that the fact that shipment didn’t have a label on the boxes, but had a note inside the boxes, may not be sufficient to clear them out of the airport and get them to where we need them to be.
“But we took the view that it was better to have that aircraft with that important cargoe sitting on a runway in an airport in Scotland than sitting on the runway in China.
“So we now have it here. It has all that important cargo. The work is underway to resolve the issue around labelling, We expect that to be completed this week, and at that point the cargo will then be redistributed.
“For NHS Scotland it is not immediately needed on the front line, but it will add importantly tour stockpile. It is part of the work being led by my colleague [SNP trade minister] Ivan McKee to ensure that we can source the maximum amount of the right PPE, not only from China and elsewhere, but also companies here in Scotland.”
“As far as I know it’s still there at Prestwick airport whilst we resolve this issue.
“We will have it resolved within a week and then supplies can go to our stockpile for NHS Scotland down to our colleagues in NHS Wales.”
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Pressed on whether the Scottish Government knew about the labelling issue before the assigment left China, Ms Freeman said: “We knew that there may be an issue with the labelling, but there was notification of what was in each box inside each box.
“We took the decision that that may well be enough, so let’s bring the shipment here and keep it, if we need to, before the labelling is sorted here in Scotland, at one of Scotland’s airports rather than have a long-distance resolution to an issue.
“So we have a shipment here now. The labelling question will be resolved this week.
“In terms of the drivers being there [to take it away on Friday], we thought it was better to have them there on the basis that the absence of label but the presence of a proper note inside each of the boxes would be sufficient, and the drivers were there then to take the cargo to where it needed to go.
“That didn’t out to to be the case but it was a sensible bit of forward-planning.”
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Scottish Labour health spokesperson Monica Lennon said: “If much-needed PPE is still stuck there, we need to know the reason why and when it will finally reach the frontline.”
NHS National Services Scotland, the health service’s procurement arm, said: “NSS ensures the quality and accuracy of all its purchased products is a priority.
“Where labelling or other detail deviates from this, we work with our suppliers to quickly resolve, using well established procedures.
“In this case we are working with our partners to ensure all required labelling is is place and have confidence that thus has no delay in any product being available.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson added: The PPE was timed to arrive substantially in advance of when it will actually be needed for distribution - which in current trends will not be for at least three weeks.”
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