PPE scandal explained - shortage riddle, who got rich and who was to blame
ITV's chilling new series Breathtaking seeks to expose the truth about what really happened on the NHS frontline during the pandemic and why the shortage of PPE was catastrophically scandalous.
The three part ITV drama focuses on what it was really like working on the NHS frontline during the Covid-19 pandemic. It stars Downton Abbey actress Joanne Froggatt, who plays hospital consultant Abbey Henderson, as the devastating effects of the previously unknown virus took hold.
It is based on a book of the same name by Dr Rachel Clarke, who was a palliative care doctor working in Oxfordshire when patients started coming into hospital with Covid. She kept a daily diary to try and help her cope with what she was going through and what she witnessed.
As the situation worsened, oxygen levels ran low, families were torn apart and staff were faced with a severe lack of beds and personal protective equipment (PPE) while the government denied there was any such shortage.
Rachel has adapted the book, alongside Line Of Duty creator Jed Mercurio and The Crown actor Prasanna Puwanarajah who were both junior doctors before moving into TV, and she wants the world to know what really went on during those harrowing times. She said: "There is so much misinformation and rewriting of history around what really happened inside our hospitals during the pandemic.
Teachers, civil servants and train drivers walk out in biggest strike in decade
"The truth is, NHS staff gave everything they had in impossible conditions that sometimes cost them their lives. It is an honour to try and depict the courage and decency of my NHS colleagues on screen, and I’m so grateful to ITV and HTM Television for giving me the chance to show the public the truth."
Dr Rachel Clarke wrote the book Breathtaking is based on (Matthew Chattle/REX/Shutterstock)
Joanne Froggatt plays the lead role in ITV's adaptation of Breathless (PA)One of the major issues doctors and nurses faced was not having enough PPE to try and protect themselves and their families from becoming infected. This led to many improvising and using bin liners and paper masks as they treated severely sick patients every day. But why couldn't hospitals access PPE? Here, The Mirror looks inside the scandal...
What was the PPE crisis?
In March 2020 the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned that a shortage of PPE was endangering health workers' lives worldwide and called on industry and governments to increase manufacturing by 40 percent.
It said demand had soared massively due to Covid, panic buying and misuse and shortages were leaving doctors, nurses and other frontline workers dangerously ill-equipped to care for COVID-19 patients due to limited access to supplies such as gloves, medical masks, respirators, goggles, face shields, gowns and aprons.
"Without secure supply chains, the risk to healthcare workers around the world is real. Industry and governments must act quickly to boost supply, ease export restrictions and put measures in place to stop speculation and hoarding. We can't stop COVID-19 without protecting health workers first," said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
After the outbreak of Covid, prices of PPE surged, with a sixfold increase on masks alone. Supplies were taking months to deliver and stock was frequently sold to the highest bidder.
WHO recommended governments should develop incentives for industry to increase production.
What was the PPE scandal?
Michelle Mone admitted she stands to benefit from tens of millions of pounds of profit from personal protective equipment (PPE) sold to the UK government during the pandemic by a company led by her husband (BBC)In April 2020 Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock announced a new plan for PPE distribution. Due to the extraordinary demand for PPE, the government created a parallel supply chain to buy and distribute equipment. The plan emphasised the need for domestic production to be ramped up and called on industry to join forces in manufacturing equipment.
It said companies such as Burberry, Rolls-Royce, McLaren, Ineos and Diageo had started work to produce equipment including gowns, visors and hand hygiene products.
As well as the parallel supply chain there was also a high priority chain, known as the VIP lane, which allowed referrals of potential suppliers from MPs, Peers, ministers, and senior officials. In January 2022, the High Court ruled that the use of the High Priority Lane was unlawful.
Greggs, Costa & Pret coffees have 'huge differences in caffeine', says report
PPE Medpro was one of the private companies awarded over £200 million in contracts through the VIP lane after former Tory peer Baroness Michelle Mone referred it. PPE Medpro was set up on 12 May 2020 and just a month later was awarded its first contract, worth £81 million, to supply 210 million face masks. The Department awarded a second contract a couple of weeks later on 26 June, worth £122 million for sterile surgical gowns.
Entrepreneur and Ultimo bra tycoon Mone and her Scottish businessman husband Doug Barrowman repeatedly denied that they were "connected in any way" to the business and were not profiting from the contracts.
However in December, she finally admitted to lying to journalists for years over her role securing contracts for PPE Medpro, a consortium led by Mr Barrowman - and to benefitting from deals that turned £60 million in profit. But she told the : "I can't see what we have done wrong."
Around £75 million of assets linked to Mone and her husband have been frozen as part of a two-year probe by the National Crime Agency. Separately, the Department of Health and Social Care is also suing PPE Medpro for breach of contract after allegedly supplying non-sterile gowns - which PPE Medpro denies. Baroness Mone is also being probed to see if she broke House of Lords rules by failing to register an interest in the firm. She denies all the allegations.
Why did the government deny there was a shortage of PPE?
In February 2021 the High Court found the government unlawfully failed to publish details of billions of pounds' worth of Covid-related contracts. Matt Hancock declined to apologise. He went on to claim there was never a national shortage of PPE at the start of the pandemic because of the work of his "team", who should "be thanked".
His comments were widely condemned by doctors and MPs, with Rachel Clarke previously telling the Mirror: "He lied about PPE, claiming there were never any real problems with PPE supply – even as woefully unprotected NHS nurses and doctors were thrown to the wolves, dying of the Covid they caught while trying to save others."
With the Covid Inquiry underway to examine how the government handled the pandemic, Rachel believes it is imperative that lessons are learned from what happened four years ago and says NHS staff are still suffering from the devastating effects.
The first episode of Breathtaking will air on Monday February 19 on ITV1 at 9pm, with the following two episodes airing the next two consecutive days at the same time.
What do you think of the PPE scandal? Let us know in the comments below.
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
