Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment the Government has made of the potential merits of building an open software platform to match people and organisations most in need of vital medical supplies with those who can provide them.

The National Supply Disruption Response (NSDR) is an established process for collating urgent demand requirements and coordinating the optimal response. It was stood up to respond to supply disruption of personal protective equipment (PPE) and medical supplies as a result of COVID-19.

The NSDR operates a 24 hours a day, seven days a week call centre facility to collate information on supply disruptions from those in urgent need of PPE and medical supplies which they are unable to source through their usual routes. The NSDR’s processes and systems are routinely reviewed in the wake of incidents and stakeholder feedback as part of continual improvement.