PPE: progress but always precarious

There has been huge, and justified national attention on the issue of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) during the Covid-19 crisis. Pressures are felt at the levels of national and global supply chains, but Kent County Council, working through the Kent Resilience Forum and our commercial company, Kent Commercial Services, has undertaken extensive work to deliver PPE within the county. 

This is separate from, and additional to the several drops of supplies from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), which I and other senior Members and officers have consistently lobbied for. All this was done from a starting point where KCC held only modest stocks of PPE for the use of our own staff,  while care providers sourced their own supplies. 

At close of business on 23 April, we had supplied over 1.4 million pieces of PPE in over 700 separate deliveries since the 3 April.  The table below provides details of the equipment delivered – all of it essential to support the safe provision of services to the most vulnerable. 

Items	Total
Type IIR Masks (or equivalent)	258,400
Respirator masks (or equivalent)	10,660
Extra-large gloves	10,260
Large gloves	251,420
Medium gloves	380,300
Small gloves	155,400
Aprons	319,200
Protective Goggles	14,307
Sanitiser 100ml	4,825
Sanitiser 500ml	120
Sanitiser 5L	112
Clinical waste bags.	16,000

Deliveries have happened every day, with the exception of Easter Sunday, and even that day was covered by our daily out of hours service.  The weekend of 18 and 19 April saw 170 separate deliveries.

All PPE and deliveries have been made free of charge.  By working closely with our partners in the Kent Resilience Forum our supply chain, which includes Kent based suppliers, has got and continues to get more robust.  We now have more substantial stocks of some key items including over 600,000 of the Type IIR Surgical Mask with more on the way, which were in very short supply only a few weeks ago. 

None of this is plain sailing and some items, such as Respirator Masks, are still quite scarce, albeit we have now sourced a reliable supply.  Demand for equipment and deliveries from KCC continues to rise.  The average daily delivery of Type IIR Masks over the last 21 days has been 12,300.  On 23^rd April 25,000 were despatched with over 29,000 already ordered for delivery on the 24^th April.  Forecasting demand has been and continues to be very difficult, exacerbated by the evolving national guidance on the correct use of PPE which has been a challenge both in terms of supply but also for our own services and provides in their provision of clear guidance to front line carers and staff.

There have been recent reports that a national online portal allowing primary and social care providers to order supplies of PPE will not be fully operational for another five weeks.  This acts as a reminder that even with the huge amount of work described here, the situation will always remain fragile, reflecting the rapid use of the equipment, changes in national guidance and fluctuations in deliveries from the centre.  Given these extreme difficulties that are widely acknowledged to exist in this area, it is right to be proud of the excellent work that has been done by KCC and the KRF. But the situation continues to evolve and remains precarious.