Delayed RAF plane lands in UK with only HALF the PPE promised because
Delayed RAF plane carrying vital PPE FINALLY lands in Britain but it only has HALF the promised 84 tonnes of equipment onboard as it emerges ministers ignored private companies’ offers of 16m masks four weeks ago
- Pictured on tarmac at Istanbul airport early this morning, the RAF transport plane has now arrived in the UK
- Claims that millions of pieces of equipment are still being exported from the UK to the EU despite shortages
- Chancellor Rishi Sunak insisted the government is pursuing ‘every possible option’ to boost PPE supplies
- Learn more about how to help people impacted by COVID
By Ed Riley For Mailonline and Joe Middleton For Mailonline and Jake Wallis Simons Associate Global Editor For Mailonline
Published: 21:19 EDT, 21 April 2020 | Updated: 04:40 EDT, 22 April 2020
An RAF plane carrying a delayed consignment of PPE from Turkey finally landed in the UK this morning – but is only carrying up to half the promised 84 tonnes of life-saving equipment.
Flight tracker RadarBox showed the Airbus A400-M registered ZM416 depart Istanbul and land just after 3.30am at RAF Brize Norton.
The jet is one of three that have been waiting for days for the go-ahead to pick urgently needed medical clothing and equipment, including 400,000 gowns made by Turkish suppliers.
It is not known how much of the consignment has arrived today, but the RAF Atlas is believed to only have capacity for 40 tonnes. After the jet touched down, three pallets were seen being unloaded onto the tarmac.
The Government promised that the A400 would arrive back in Britain on Sunday, but it didn’t land in Istanbul until Monday, at 9.10pm local time. No clear reason has been given for the delay.
Fury over coronavirus PPE shortages is escalating amid claims the government was ignoring offers of help from businesses – and millions of pieces of PPE are still being shipped out of the UK in spite of the lack of equipment for NHS frontline staff.
Reports suggested that the Government missed out on 16million facemasks for the NHS after ignoring offers from two major firms
And The Times reports how military personnel have slammed the NHS for its ‘appalling’ handling of distributing the PPE, with senior army sources saying some was being shipped to hospitals with good stocks that didn’t need it.
The RAF Cargo plane lands at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire this morning at just after 3.30am
The Atlas A400 is spotted approaching the runway early this morning. It is only carrying up to half the promised 84 tonnes of life-saving equipment
The delay in getting the vital PPE equipment back from Turkey has been blamed on ”challenges at the Turkish end’ but Istanbul has retorted that Britain only requested help with the consignment on Sunday.
The government insisted they were pursuing ‘every possible option’ to secure additional kit but said that, with unprecedented worldwide demand, the situation is ‘very challenging’.
Local Government Minister Simon Clarke could not give a timescale on when the full supplies would arrive earlier this week, saying only that it would be in the ‘next few days’.
Separately, the Government said that 140,000 gowns had arrived from Burma – but with the NHS using 150,000 a day, the demand on resources remains intense.
In another day of chaos in the government’s attempt to get hold of vital PPE:
- Patients are being turned away from the new 4,000-bed NHS Nightingale hospital in London due to a lack of nurses, it has been claimed today
- The UK has announced another 828 deaths from the coronavirus yesterday taking Britain’s total number of victims to 17,337. Although the rise in fatalities is the biggest since Saturday, April 18 (888), and almost double the number that were announced on Monday (449), it does not necessarily mean the outbreak is getting worse because the deaths are backdated;
- Official figures suggest the true number of coronavirus victims in the UK may be 41 per cent higher than previously announced. Mortality data released by the ONS imply the death toll might be closer to 23,000 up to April 10;
- Mr Johnson appears to be gearing up to take back the reins of government, speaking to Donald Trump on the phone yesterday, although Downing Street insisted he is not doing any ‘official work’;
- The House of Commons has returned from its Easter recess, but only to approve a ‘virtual’ Parliament that will kick off later today
The Guardian reports that infectious disease specialists Landcent claim they could have delivered six million FFP2 masks for the NHS to use if they had placed an order three weeks ago.
Volker Schuster, who owns Merseyside-based chemicals company EcoLogix, also claims he wrote to the Cabinet Office’s ‘COVID commercial response unit’ to offer a shipment of 10milllion FFP2 masks from China.
They say they only got a response eight days later, by which time they had been sold to other countries.
Schuster’s MP, Bill Esterson, Labour MP for Sefton Central, confirmed that he also contacted Matt Hancock, to highlight the offer on 27 March but that he had never received a reply.
There are currently around 8,000 different firms offering personal protective equipment (PPE) supplies in the UK. Figures suggest ministers have engaged with around 1,000 of those, but is only working directly with 159 to deliver them to NHS workers.
Rachel Reeves, the shadow cabinet office minister, said on Tuesday she had been inundated by manufacturers who had contacted the government offering to make or supply PPE but that she had heard nothing back.
The RAF transport plane being loaded with vital PPE equipment in Turkey which is destined for frontline healthcare workers in the UK
The Atlas A400 was meant to arrive back in the UK on Sunday, but has now taken off destined for the UK, which is suffering from a shortage of equipment to battle the pandemic
Downing Street rejected claims it ignored offers from firms, while local government minister Simon Clarke said there is a ‘standing presumption’ that the Government will do its utmost to buy PPE ‘wherever it can be sourced’ and urged manufacturers to ‘reach out’ to the Cabinet Office to log their ability to make equipment.
The Atlas A400
The Atlas A400 entered operational service with the RAF in 2014.
It has the capability to carry a 37 tonne payload.
It is capable of operating at altitudes up to 40,000ft.
It can hold 116 fully-equipped troops, vehicles a Chinook helicopter, nine aircraft pallets and 54 passengers.
It is operated by two pilots and a Weapons Systems Operator.
Senior sources in the army have blasted the health health service for its logisitics in getting PPE out to the right people, alleging that masks, aprons, gloves and other items were being assigned to hospitals that didn’t need them, leading to oversupply in some places.
A source told The Times: ‘We know how knackered their [NHS logistics] systems are, but we’ve been surprised we’ve not been called in to help more, and we’ve been surprised by their failure to ration [kit].
The newspaper reports that it is understood that commanders are frustrated that the Covid Support Force has not been called in to lead on the allocation of PPE.
A Ministry of Defence spokesman told The Times: ‘The MoD understands just how challenging logistics can be, especially under current pressures.
‘Of course there may be frictions at a local level, but those same armed forces are doing everything possible to support their health colleagues. The MoD has full confidence in the NHS.’
With fears that staff in hospitals and care homes are risking their lives, the TUC called for an independent inquiry into the Government’s handling of the issue to be mounted before the end of the year.
Workers pack the RAF transport plane full of PPE equipment destined for frontline workers in the UK
The Mirror reports how tens of thousands of visors are sitting waiting to be shipped abroad after the Government failed to agree to buy them.
The vital PPE kit has been made by Nottingham firm Printers Prime Group. It transformed its operation and took on 30 extra staff ready to make up to one million visors a month, which is 35,000 a day.
But the firm is frustrated that despite contacting officials a month ago, no orders have been placed. It has already delivered 350,000 to frontline NHS and care staff here for free or at cost.
Hospitals have sought other ways of obtaining PPE, with the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust buying 6,000 sets of coveralls due to a very low stock of gowns, although it admitted this was ‘not ideal’.
The plane carrying the vital equipment needed by frontline healthcare workers was pictured making its way to the UK this morning
Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, has said trusts are being forced into ‘hand-to-mouth’ workarounds, including washing single-use gowns and restricting stocks to key areas.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak told reporters at the Number 10 press briefing on Monday that work was ongoing to find more PPE.
He said: ‘We’re improving our sourcing internationally and domestically to make sure we can get the PPE we need in what is a very challenging international context.
‘But people on the front line can rest assured that we’re doing absolutely everything we can and straining everything we can to get the equipment they need.’
The Atlas A400, pictured earlier this week remained empty at Istanbul airport. It was meant to arrive back in the UK on Sunday
The transport flight has been dogged by delays and confusion. Ministers then claimed it would arrive yesterday
The hold-ups come with hospitals warning they are close to running out of some items, and medical bodies saying doctors could need to make ‘difficult decisions’ between exposing themselves to the virus or ‘letting a patient die on their watch’.
Trusts have accused ministers of raising the hopes of health staff saying they had ‘bitter experience’ of promised PPE either failing to arrive, or turning out to be either faulty or the wrong kit.
Michelle van Vuuren, who runs a London-based property company, turned her business into a PPE distributor working with Chinese suppliers last month as the virus began to spread around the world.
After failed attempts to contact NHS procurement services, Miss van Vuuren contacted Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s office on March 20.
She was subsequently passed to the Cabinet Office but her inquiries went ‘into a vacuum’ and were met with only an automated response.
The Deputy Chief Medical Officer faced an angry backlash after she claimed that people are not being ‘adult’ about PPE supplies.
Dr Jenny Harries slapped down critics of the government’s efforts to make sure frontline workers have access to the gowns, gloves and masks they need to protect against coronavirus.
She said there needed to be a ‘more adult, and more detailed conversation about PPE supplies’ as she insisted the UK was an ‘international exemplar in preparedness’.
But healthcare chiefssaid they had been ‘sounding the alarm’ on the apparent lack of PPE available in some settings ‘for months’.
UK’s ‘impenetrable wall of bureaucracy’ stops firm supplying PPE
Amid growing frustration, the Government said it had deployed ‘every resource’ to get its hands on desperately needed PPE supplies and ventilators in recent months. NHS staff are pictured carrying out coronavirus tests in Lincoln
A British supplier of protective health equipment was forced to sell millions of life- saving items overseas after attempts to equip the NHS were met with an ‘impenetrable wall of bureaucracy’.
The company said UK procurement system was ‘unresponsive at best or incompetent at worst’ and delays were putting lives at risk.
The embarrassing revelations will raise questions about why the Government did not replenish PPE stockpiles and build up more supplies in March as the country entered the crisis.
Amid growing frustration, the Government said it had deployed ‘every resource’ to get its hands on desperately needed PPE supplies and ventilators in recent months.
But the supplier trying to sell millions of masks, gowns and aprons yesterday said it had spent ‘five weeks hammering at the Government’s door’ without response.
Michelle van Vuuren, who runs a London-based property company, turned her business into a PPE distributor working with Chinese suppliers last month as the virus began to spread around the world.
After failed attempts to contact NHS procurement services, Miss van Vuuren contacted Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s office on March 20.
She was subsequently passed to the Cabinet Office but her inquiries went ‘into a vacuum’ and were met with only an automated response.
Civil servant is forced into embarrassing U-turn after claiming ministers made a ‘political decision’ to DELIBERATELY snub EU schemes to buy PPE – and now accepts Downing Street just missed the email
A senior civil servant has been forced into an embarrassing U-turn after claiming ministers took a ‘political decision’ to deliberately snub an EU scheme to buy PPE.
Yesterday Sir Simon McDonald told MPs it had been a ‘political decision’ by the Government not to take part in Brussels-orchestrated efforts to bulk-buy personal protective equipment (PPE) because ‘We left the European Union on January 31’.
But this evening he wrote to the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee to admit Boris Johnson’s ministers were not briefed on the EU scheme because of a ‘communication problem’.
Mr Johnson’s administration had previously claimed this version events – that missed emails had resulted in the UK not taking part.
Sir Simon McDonald told MPs it had been a ‘political decision’ not to take part in Brussels-orchestrated efforts to bulk-buy protective equipment, but had to U-turn this evening
And humiliatingly, Health Secretary Matt Hancock confirmed there was ‘no political decision not to participate in the scheme’ during this evening’s Downing Street press conference.
In the letter, addressed to chair Tom Tugendhat, Sir Simon admits the ‘facts of the situation are as previously set out’.
He says: ‘Unfortunately due to a misunderstanding, I inadvertently and wrongly told the Committee that Ministers were briefed by UKMIS on the EU’s Joint Procurement Agreement scheme and took a political decision not to participate in it.
‘This is incorrect. Ministers were not briefed by our mission in Brussels about the scheme and a political decision was not taken on whether or not to participate.’
He went on: ‘Owing to an initial communication problem, the UK did not receive an invitation in time to join in four joint COVID EU procurement schemes.
‘As four initial schemes had already gone out to tender we were unable to take part.’
The death toll of frontline NHS and care home staff, from heart surgeons and nurses to porters and volunteers, has now reached at least 80. Pictured (left to right): Habib Zaidi, 76, GP from Essex; Adil El Tayar, 63, Hereford doctor; Pooja Sharma, 33, Sussex pharmacist; Amged El-Hawrani ENT expert, Burton
Pictured (left to right): Thomas Harvey, 57, London nurse; Alfa Saadu, 68, Essex doctor; Mohamed Shousha 79, London medic; Lynsay Coventry, 54, Essex midwife
Pictured (left to right): Aimee O’Rourke, 39, Kent nurse; Liz Glanister, 68, Liverpool nurse; Areema Nasreen, 36, Walsall nurse; Consultant Anton Sebastianpillai
Pictured (left to right): John Alagos, 23, Watford nurse; Glen Corbin, 59, from London; Rebecca Mack, 29, nurse, Morpeth; Janice Graham, 58, nurse, Scotland
Pictured (left to right): Rahima Sidhanee, 68, London nurse; Josiane Ekoli, 55, Harrogate nurse; Cheryl Williams, ward housekeeper; Ade Raymond, London nurse
Pictured (left to right): Maureen Ellington, Bristol nurse; Gladys Nyemba, Nottingham nurse; Andy Treble, 57, Wrexham hospital; Lourdes Campbell, 54, Bolton NHS
Pictured (left to right): Amrik Bamotra, 63, Ilford hospital; Brian Darlington, 63, Crewe porter; Julianne Cadby, 49, NHS manager; Linnette Cruz, 51, dental nurse
Pictured (left to right): London GP Syed Zishan Haider, 79; Jitendra Rathod, 58, surgeon, Cardiff; Alice Kit Tak Ong, 70, London nurse; Leilani Dayrit, 47, Rugby nurse
Pictured (left to right): Barbara Moore, 54, Liverpool; Edmond Adedeji, 62, locum, Wiltshire; Fayez Ayache, 76, GP in Ipswich; Carol Jamabo, 56, carer in Bury
Pictured (left to right): Carer Catherine Sweeney, 64; Donald Suelto, London nurse; Urologist Abdul Chowdhury, 53; Julie Omar, 52, nurse in Redditch
Pictured (left to right): Elsie Sazuze, 44, carer, Cannock; Gareth Roberts, 63, Cardiff nurse; Sara Trollope, 51, London matron; Amor Gatinao, 50, London nurse
Pictured (left to right): Donna Campbell, 54, from Cardiff; Elbert Rico, 52, porter in Oxford; Oscar King Jr, 45, porter in Oxford; Elvira Bucu, 50, care worker
Pictured (left to right): Nurse Melujean Ballesteros, 60; Technician Kevin Smith, Doncaster; Leilani Medel, 41, nurse in Cardiff; Amarante Dias, 54, nurse in Somerset
Pictured (left to right): Gladys Mujajati, 46, Derby nurse; Care assistant Stephen Agyapong; Patricia Crowhurst, 54, Teesside care; Jane Murphy, 73, Edinburgh A&E
Pictured (left to right): Barbara Sage, 68, Bromley, London; Dr Krishan Arora, 57, London; Sonya Kaygan, 26, care worker; Jenelyn Carter, 41, Swansea nurse
Pictured (left to right): Michael Allieu, London nurse; Radiographer Simon Guest; Wilma Banaag, 63, Watford hospital; Gilbert Barnedo, 48, London nurse
Pictured (left to right): Rajesh Kalraiya, 69, consultant, Romford; Steven Pearson, 51, nurse, Cumbria; Linda Clarke, 66, Wigan midwife; Emily Perugia, 29, carer, London
Pictured (left to right): Barry England, 999 paramedic; Gordon Ballard, manager, London; Mandy Siddorn, 61, technician, Chester; Unnamed at family’s request
Pictured (left to right): Carer Ruben Junior Munoz, Surrey; Andy Stamp, 65, IT admin, Liverpool; Margaret Tapley, 84, NHS nurse; Charles Tanor, 39, carer, West Mids
