NHS: Protective Clothing

(asked on 2nd June 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the part-privatisation of NHS Supply Chain on that organisations' ability to ensure adequate provision of personal protective equipment during the covid-19 outbreak.


Answered by
Edward Argar Portrait
Edward Argar
Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
This question was answered on 10th June 2020

Supply Chain Coordination Limited (SCCL), the management function of NHS Supply Chain, is a company wholly owned by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, to whom it is accountable and responsible. It aims to deliver significant savings to National Health Service frontline services through leveraging the buying power of the NHS and reducing unwarranted price variation.

A new personal protective equipment (PPE) supply channel has been set up by the Government to focus on securing supplies of PPE to meet the urgent volume requirements for PPE items. This is a dedicated and totally separate PPE supply channel, allowing NHS Supply Chain to focus on ensuring the supply of medical devices and clinical consumables to the NHS. The dedicated PPE supply channel will remain in place for as long as is required.

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