Palliative and end of life care services, such as hospices, were supplied via regional hubs. Around 53,000 providers have registered, receiving over 4 billion items of PPE so far to support their COVID-19 needs.ĭHSC also set up bespoke distribution routes via local authorities and local resilience forums ( LRFs) for those services that could not be supplied through the portal and to distribute free COVID-19 PPE to other public sector services such as schools. More than 58,000 eligible health and social care providers in England – including GPs, adult social care providers, dentists, orthodontists, optometrists and pharmacies – have been invited to register with, and order their COVID-19 PPE requirements through the online PPE portal, free of charge.

The Department of Health and Social Care ( DHSC) launched a new online portal to support over 50,000 primary care and social care providers with accessing their COVID-19 PPE requirements, free of charge. With the wholesale market struggling to respond to this increased demand, and to ensure the viability of services in the face of soaring costs, government took a central role in the procurement and supply of PPE to health and care settings, many of which had never had the need for certain items of medical-grade PPE before. Health and care providers experienced significant difficulty acquiring PPE at an affordable price in the volumes needed to deliver services safely. This significantly disrupted PPE supply chains and the wholesale market for PPE. This included NHS Supply Chain, a limited company currently owned by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, designed to help the NHS deliver clinically assured, quality products at the best value.Īs the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak developed, global demand for PPE soared. Previously, health and social care providers sourced their PPE from a range of PPE wholesalers or manufacturers. PPE was purchased locally by health and social care providers who had the autonomy to choose their own suppliers. Prior to coronavirus (COVID-19), procurement of personal protective equipment ( PPE) was not centralised.

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