More than a million masks on their way to Greater Manchester, mayor says

More than a million masks are on their way to Greater Manchester, the Metro Mayor has revealed, as supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) improve in the region.

Andy Burnham said that the provision of PPE has been a major issue in the Greater Manchester throughout the coronavirus crisis.

But speaking at a press conference on Wednesday (22 April), Mr Burnham said the region’s PPE position has improved.

He said: “That’s partly down to more frequent local resilience forum drops that the government are organising – they have hit a more regular rhythm now – which is welcome.

“But it’s mainly down to the efforts that Greater Manchester has taken on its own initiative to source PPE on the open market.

“Today, we were presented for the first time with a table on our dashboard which is levels of PPE in the non-acute system – so pretty much for social care. But for other council-run public services particularly. What that reveals is that we’ve got a good supply. A double figure of days in most cases.

“But when it comes to fluid-resistant masks we are down to just a three-day supply and it’s been a source of frustration for us that a major consignment of masks that we were able to buy has been pretty much sitting at Heathrow Airport.

“It’s finally on its way. It’s on the M6 and that’s over a million masks coming into Greater Manchester this afternoon which is a fantastic effort by the team here that have been leading those efforts.

“It’s frustrating that bureaucracy is still in our way but I just want to report today that there is an improved position on PPE but we continue to work very, very hard indeed with colleagues in the health service to make sure there is no risk to supply. That remains challenging but we are making progress.”

The Metro Mayor also explained that an Operations Pressure Escalation Levels (OPEL) framework, like the one used by hospitals, has been put in place in the social care system throughout Greater Manchester.

This will work as an 'early-warning system' for care homes to report shortages in PPE and infections or deaths from coronavirus.

He said: “What this does is that it takes a range of data and then across a whole system it can see the organisations that are perhaps going into greatest trouble and therefore you can get mutual aid and support into those organisations and operate it as a system – which of course social care has never operated as.

“So this is a very big innovation and a huge amount of work has gone on last week led by Steven Pleasant, the chief executive of Tameside, with the directors of adult services.

“They’ve agreed a framework for this OPEL system in Greater Manchester which would effectively be an early-warning system for our care homes and it would be drawing on data around deaths, PPE shortage and infections.

“So it’s a pretty significant innovation in a short space of time and it should allow us to put more up-to-date information together on what’s happening in our care homes.”

Joseph Timan, Local Democracy Reporter