THE First Minister has said the Scottish Government is “extremely concerned” by reports that PPE firms are prioritising sending kit to England over Scotland and Wales.
Nicola Sturgeon stressed the Scottish Government is working hard to ensure care homes have what they need amid the coronavirus pandemic, but that if care homes are affected by these moves it is “completely unacceptable”.
Speaking at her daily coronavirus briefing earlier, Nicola Sturgeon announced there had been a further 40 Covid-19 deaths taking the total to 615.
READ MORE: Westminster tells vital supply firms not to deal with Scotland
The SNP leader went on to address concerns over care homes, after it emerged the firm Gompels HeathCare – which makes gloves, gowns and face masks – put a message from Public Health England on its website stating it would not send out PPE to providers in Scotland or Wales.
Scottish Care chief executive Donald Macaskill had raised the concerns that PPE firms were supplying England with the vital kit as their “priority”.
Today, the First Minister said: "Care homes are a cause of concern for us with this virus, and particularly to all those that have a loved one in a care home.
"We know older people are more at risk to this virus... so I want to stress how hard we are working to ensure that care home providers are following guidance, that they have good infection control measures in place and they have the support and equipment they need.
"We are aware of reports that supplies of PPE to care homes in Scotland are being diverted to England. I should stress we are not aware, so far, that this is an issue affecting supplies to our national stockpile, although we continue to monitor that.
"I also want to be clear, if care homes usual supplies are being affected in this way then, as well as that being completely unacceptable in itself, it will of course increase pressure on our national stockpile and that would be a real worry for us.
"So, it is not an exaggeration to say we are extremely concerned by these reports and are taking steps to investigate them further and to seek to resolve them, if there are real issues as a matter of urgency."
In reference to one essential item on its website yesterday Gompels had written: “Gompels is helping the Covid-19 response by distributing this product on behalf of Public Health England to ensure that essential supplies get to care home and domiciliary care providers.
“As such this product has a number of restrictions on who can purchase it. You must be registered and operating in England – apologies to Wales and Scotland, we are told you have different processes for getting emergency supplies.”
A UK Government spokesperson said: “Our PPE strategy is UK-wide, making sure that frontline workers in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all have the PPE they need to stay protected while taking care of patients.
“Through this four-nation approach, we are working closely with the devolved administrations to co-ordinate the distribution of PPE evenly across the UK. To date, Scotland has received 11 million pieces of PPE from central UK stocks.
“We have not instructed any company to prioritise PPE for any one nation. Our UK-wide strategy will ensure equipment continues to be evenly distributed across the entire nation.”
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