PPE for Greater Manchester arrived two days late and only met a tenth of expectation

Mayor Andy Burnham has revealed that a delivery of personal protective equipment (PPE) for Greater Manchester arrived two days late and only contained a tenth of the masks and aprons expected.

The Mayor of Greater Manchester described the provision of essential protective equipment as a “hand-to-mouth” operation.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Andy Burnham warned of a “real risk” that care homes in Greater Manchester would run out of PPE.

He said: “As we stand, there is still no regular supply line of protective equipment from national supply sources to adult social care services in Greater Manchester. It continues to be a hand-to-mouth operation.

“We have been working towards a further delivery of equipment and we were expecting it the day before yesterday, then we were expecting it yesterday. It’s finally arrived today. But with regards to masks and aprons, it’s about a tenth of what we were expecting and is probably about a day’s supply.

“This creates a real risk that care homes in Greater Manchester will run out of personal protective equipment.”

The Metro Mayor called on the government to correct the problem with the provision of PPE, saying that it is “not yet good enough”.

He revealed care homes and social services must wait two weeks before benefitting from the national delivery system of PPE.

Mr Burnham also called for more regular information to be published with a greater focus on social care services.

He said: “I’m pleased to say we’re working hard as a Greater Manchester system and I need to show gratitude towards our hospitals who have stepped forward to offer equipment to back fill some of the gaps in social care and that is much appreciated but we cannot continue to operate in this way.

“We are a couple of weeks away from social care being added to the new national delivery system. So we are still relying on the interim on a faltering ad-hoc system that isn’t as we stand today delivering the goods for social care in Greater Manchester.

“All of our councils are in touch with all of their care homes, so there is clear information at that level as to what is going on at that level. What we need is a Greater Manchester system support that will allow us to operate an early warning system.

“We are calling on the government to devote much more focus to social care. Having stood up extra capacity in the hospital system, we believe there’s now need for a much greater, stronger focus on social care.”

Joseph Timan, Local Democracy Reporter