LEARNING from the problems and delays over PPE and testing will be essential to getting the vaccine strategy right, experts say.
Thousands of frontline health and social care workers have complained since the start of the pandemic that they have been unable to access enough personal protective equipment like masks, gowns and visors, despite Government assurances that supplies have been ordered.
In one case, RAF planes had to be flown to Turkey to collect supplies of gowns. However, export licences had not been obtained by the Government.
The planes lay on the tarmac while negotiations took place, but the disaster was magnified when the 400,000 gowns eventually arrived back in the UK only to be impounded at Heathrow as they were “useless”.
It emerged the private firm making them had switched from its usual production of T-shirts and tracksuits, and the items it had produced did not meet safety standards.
Other issues around PPE included health boards and trusts across the country competing with one another for supplies, and purchasing of PPE was left so late that prices had soared, costing governments more to procure it.
On testing, the World Health Organisation’s pandemic advice has been to use existing primary healthcare systems, such as GP surgeries and hospitals in the first instance.
But many countries ignored this and built parallel systems instead, such as the UK’s testing hubs and drive-through sites, or the Nightingale hospitals and Glasgow’s Louisa Jordan.
As a result, many hospital departments and GP surgeries have seen fewer patients than they would normally.
The issues around testing became apparent when Health Secretary Matt Hancock set a goal of carrying out 100,000 tests for Covid-19 per day by the end of April, but with less than a week to go before the deadline, the Government had failed to conduct even half that number.
Hancock said the “demand” had simply not been high enough, when in fact there were reports that workers were being offered tests in places hours away from where they lived, making it impossible for them to get there.
Eventually the Government introduced mobile testing sites – vehicles which would go to areas furthest from the central testing sites – making it easier to access those who needed tests.
According to experts, if the testing hubs had been set up in communities in the first place, as set out in the World Health Organisation's advice, there may not have been so many problems.
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