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UK to burn £4 billion of Covid-19 protection — Analysis

A report reveals that the British government spent most of its money on protective equipment in the first year following the pandemic.

The UK government accumulated Covid-19 personal protection equipment (PPE) worth a whopping £4 billion ($4.94 billion) that is deemed unusable and needs to be disposed of, Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee said in a report published on Friday. It is said that the Cabinet plans to burn almost all of this equipment.

According to government officials, the equipment would be burnt. “generate power,”The committee however has condemned the London approach and said that London is not suitable. “clear disposal strategy,”The “cost-effectiveness and environmental impact”Concerns are raised about the proposed method. It cannot be used within the National Health Service because of its low quality.

The issue is the result of a bigger blunder on the part of the UK Department for Health & Social Care (DHSC) the report says, adding that it lost 75% of £12 billion ($14.81 billion) spent on PPE in the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic to “inflated prices and kit that did not meet requirements.”

They are similar to figures presented in the DHSC’s January Annual Report and Accounts. The loss was equivalent to 5% of the Health Department’s entire annual budget, it was said at that time.

Report reveals how much money UK lost buying PPE over Covid

The “haphazard purchasing strategy”The Cabinet’s actions during this period led to 24% of PPE contracts being awarded that are currently in dispute. This is because the supplied products were unfit for their purpose. The report also states that a contract was signed for 3.5 million gloves with a manufacturer who now faces modern slavery allegations.

The committee also expressed concerns over “inappropriate unauthorized payoffs made to staff by health bodies”You might also see a major restructuring of NHS during this time. “happening again.”

The committee’s head, Dame Meg Hillier, a lawmaker from the Labour Party, blasted the revelations in the report as “the most shameful episode [of] the UK government response to the pandemic.”Her point was made by a representative of healthcare, who pointed out that social workers and staff in the field of health care were left to their own devices at the outbreak of the pandemic because of the absence of proper protection equipment. They spent a lot of money trying to meet the growing demand. “huge amounts of money, paying obscenely inflated prices and payments to middlemen”In the hurry to purchase PPE.

UK government’s PPE procurement ruled unlawful

“DHSC singularly failed to manage this crisis, despite years of clear and known risk of a pandemic, and the challenges facing it now are vast,”She added.

According to AP, the government denied it was planning to burn all £4 billion worth of PPE, and said that just £670 million ($835 million) of the equipment will be incinerated, since it is “unusable in any context” anyway. According to it, the remainder will be given to dentists or charities as well as transportation agencies and other nations.

Robin Walker, minister of state in the Department for Education said Friday “mistakes were made”They blamed their pandemic on the people who died at the beginning. “totally unprecedented situation”That was the moment that all of humanity faced.

The figures for the Health Department’s losses were revealed to the public in February. Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting named them. “inexcusable.”

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