News yesterday that PPE Medpro - a company linked to Britain’s Baroness Mone -  has been ordered to pay £122m in damages for breaching a Government contract for the supply of personal protective equipment during the pandemic is most welcome. However, even if the money’s ever paid (and I understand that it’s doubtful that it will be) it’s a drop in the ocean compared to the obscene amount of money wasted on pandemic-related PPE that didn’t comply with healthcare standards, or which was inappropriate for users’ needs – or, in many cases, simply wasn’t delivered. Also, I feel that the time it’s taken to get this case through the Courts doesn’t bode well for similar actions to be brought or for much money to ever be recovered.   

   

While a report issued in June revealed that pandemic-era PPE contracts cost the British taxpayer £1.4 billion, a report issued in 2020/21 claimed that 8.7 billion spent on pandemic PPE had been written off by the UK Government – a huge difference and one I can’t currently get my head around.   

  

I wonder just how much taxpayers’ money was wasted globally? And perhaps even more important, how many lives were lost because substandard PPE had to be used as there was simply nothing else available? I recall reading reports from all over, of companies with no background in PPE manufacturing, being awarded lucrative contracts to supply it, rather than the contracts going to seasoned suppliers who really only needed to up their game in terms of rapidly increasing supply and delivery. Naturally, there were many accusations of conflicts of interest, too. But how many of these ‘crimes against humanity’ have been investigated and those involved in misappropriating public funds and/or what could perhaps be deemed as corporate manslaughter brought to justice? And what have we learnt from it all, to ensure that it doesn’t happen again?  

  

In pondering all this, I remembered a brilliantly researched article written for Cleanzine by Vectair Systems’ Paul Wonnacott and I dug it out to read it again. I believe it’s as relevant now as it was back then and it contains some great advice, (thank you Paul!). You can read it here:Do they conform?