RE: RNS...7 May 2020 14:03
Bakky /Cooper D read this before condeming the Government,
These are the FACTS:
My facts, yes, facts, are down to a 30 plus year career as sales rep in the PPE industry and for a lot of those years, I have had the pleasure of dealing with the NHS industry as a customer.
FIRSTLY. The government are failing our NHS by not providing PPE.
The government does not, I repeat DOES NOT provide PPE to the NHS ! Each and every hospital in this country is part of a trust. Each trust has a procurement team that are sometimes filled with buyers who are clueless about what they’re buying, so in effect, they’re not buyers, they’re order placers. I say sometimes, not all the time. These trusts are filled with senior managers who are usually on mega wages. These people are the ones that’s responsible for all the red tape that the NHS puts in front of suppliers. There is a national data base of approved NHS suppliers. The only way you get on this approved suppliers list is if you actually have a contract (won via a tender) to supply any product, be it chairs, beds or PPE. Then and only then can you supply products into the NHS. You could be the company that has the most innovative product the world has ever seen for health care, but if you’re not on the approved suppliers list to the NHS. Well the NHS wont buy it off you, period, that’s it ! So to say that PPE isn’t available. Believe me, it is.
SECONDLY, in 1992, the government issued what’s more commonly known as the six pack. It was a major change in the 1974 Health and safety at work act. It covered such things as Manual Handling, risk assessment and PPE amongst others. Believe it or not. PPE is a last requirement for doing a job.ie; Can good house keeping prevent accidents, if so, do it. If not. Do a risk assessment, look at what the risks involved are, then buy the CORRECT PPE that will be SUITABLE for the job in hand. I watched an interview with an NHS Trust manager on the news yesterday who stated that they can’t get the amount of PPE they need because greedy companies are charging exorbitant prices. He stated that they couldn’t but 1 million masks because they where being charged £1 instead of the 20p per mask they normally buy. I can honestly state in my professional opinion that if this man is authorising his trust to buy face masks for 20p. HE IS NOT BUYING THE CORRECT OR SUIATBLE PPE for front line workers. Disposable face masks come in three general specifications. FFP1, FFP2 and FFP3. FFP1 offers the lowest form of protection available and will just about stop a brick. It certainly wont stop fine particles, let alone germs and you can usually pick these up for guess what ! Yup, about 20p each ! For the general public, masks will not stop you contracting the virus. It will only stop you transmitting it !
1of2 Continued
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