The government has today been accused of “wasting” £8.7bn on “unusable” PPE during the pandemic.
New documents from the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) show huge amounts spent on useless equipment, while millions of pounds has been spent getting out of contracts or storing the equipment at ports.
It comes as ministers have come under fire from care home bosses for job losses before the U-turn on mandatory Covid vaccines for NHS health and social care workers announced yesterday.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid faced pressure to scrap the requirement for health workers in England to be double-vaccinated by 1 April amid fears it will lead to a major staffing crisis.
He said the government “makes no apology” for the initial policy but added it is right to review the measure because the Delta variant has been replaced by the less severe Omicron.
A care sector boss said the government must apologise to care home workers who lost their jobs, following the U-turn.
Vic Rayner, chief executive of the National Care Forum (NCF), said care homes have been “unwitting guinea pigs” and the impact on providers and staff “must not be swept under the carpet”.
