£1.4bn of Covid PPE Destroyed
Discussion
Mr Penguin said:
gotoPzero said:
Madness.
The government should have been producing this PPE not going to tiny companies to fulfil Bn £ POs.
No wonder they bought a £30M villa in barbados.
I would have done the same thing!!!
The issue is not the people running the company but that the government were just throwing money around in panic mode. Over ordering on the scales they did was insanity. The other issue is the cost to destroy all this stuff, £100m. Another company made millions off the back of getting rid of it all.
I do wonder about the UK these days.
How would the government start and ramp up production in a matter of weeks? The government should have been producing this PPE not going to tiny companies to fulfil Bn £ POs.
No wonder they bought a £30M villa in barbados.
I would have done the same thing!!!
The issue is not the people running the company but that the government were just throwing money around in panic mode. Over ordering on the scales they did was insanity. The other issue is the cost to destroy all this stuff, £100m. Another company made millions off the back of getting rid of it all.
I do wonder about the UK these days.
S600BSB said:
Jasandjules said:
We wasted 400 billion on this. Funny how the Govt are more concerned about benefit fraud than billionaire fraud.
There is no suggestion of any fraud in this case - it’s not the same as the Tory Peer Baroness Mone case. They also defrauded the nation by not making it clear this would all have to be paid back (to be fair Labour are also doing this).
Bluevanman said:
I don't understand why it has to be destroyed just because it's past a use by date
Sell/donate it to countries where there's a shortage who aren't bothered by a made up number on a tag
The problem with that is that someone dies of sepsis, completely unrelated to the PPE, and some lawyer somewhere makes a fortune suing the British Government.Sell/donate it to countries where there's a shortage who aren't bothered by a made up number on a tag
Or some investigative journalist makes a name for themselves showing the ‘disgusting’ practice of passing expired medical supplies to 3rd World hospitals whilst cutting our foreign aid budget.
Damned if they do, damned if they don’t.
On a deeper level it’s why our politicians are such w
kers.Anyone with ability, vision & purpose would make a fortune in the city.
Politics is celebrity for ugly people.
Most medical stuff has a shelf life.
I'm involved in sport so normally have a small first aid kit with me. Every few years our welfare officer ensures that
bandages and wipes etc. are replaced so they are "in date".
Although things like plastic aprons could be donated to schools for kids art/painting aprons
and other such recycling.
I'm involved in sport so normally have a small first aid kit with me. Every few years our welfare officer ensures that
bandages and wipes etc. are replaced so they are "in date".
Although things like plastic aprons could be donated to schools for kids art/painting aprons
and other such recycling.
Given that this was a pre-existing supplier of ppe and was already supplying the NHS, one could simply interpret this as their supply being unused because the government bought a load more than they needed, much of which was unsuitable, from dodgy feckers who somehow had their phone number.
Murph7355 said:
Was always likely to happen.
And if we don't want knee jerk reactions to the next one, we're going to be spending a lot on PPE every year that ultimately never gets used before it's destroyed.
That may or may not be a better approach than leaving it to the last minute and putting rushed contracts in place. But I doubt anyone will take the time to work that through. Least of all Wes Streeting (who I generally think is OK) - where were Labour calling out all of this at the time, rather than simply saying we should be doing more....
It would probably be cheaper to pay your normal supplier to keep a ‘ready to go’ excess/sprint manufacturing capability ready and waiting than it would be to store/destroy regularly expiring stocks.And if we don't want knee jerk reactions to the next one, we're going to be spending a lot on PPE every year that ultimately never gets used before it's destroyed.
That may or may not be a better approach than leaving it to the last minute and putting rushed contracts in place. But I doubt anyone will take the time to work that through. Least of all Wes Streeting (who I generally think is OK) - where were Labour calling out all of this at the time, rather than simply saying we should be doing more....
One of the downsides of lean/just in time approaches to the supply chain is that it makes it much less resilient, as we found in the pandemic.
Haven’t seen anyone doing anything with that lesson though.
LimaDelta said:
Mr Penguin said:
gotoPzero said:
Madness.
The government should have been producing this PPE not going to tiny companies to fulfil Bn £ POs.
No wonder they bought a £30M villa in barbados.
I would have done the same thing!!!
The issue is not the people running the company but that the government were just throwing money around in panic mode. Over ordering on the scales they did was insanity. The other issue is the cost to destroy all this stuff, £100m. Another company made millions off the back of getting rid of it all.
I do wonder about the UK these days.
How would the government start and ramp up production in a matter of weeks? The government should have been producing this PPE not going to tiny companies to fulfil Bn £ POs.
No wonder they bought a £30M villa in barbados.
I would have done the same thing!!!
The issue is not the people running the company but that the government were just throwing money around in panic mode. Over ordering on the scales they did was insanity. The other issue is the cost to destroy all this stuff, £100m. Another company made millions off the back of getting rid of it all.
I do wonder about the UK these days.
Paul Dishman said:
The same number that some people think should produce drugs for the NHS instead of “Big Pharma”
there are good reasons that governments should develop/maybe even produce some drugs.the best argument is for anti bacterial medicines.
every time you use antibiotics, you increase evolutionary pressure on pathogens to evolve to become resistant.
that means that new antibiotic drugs are not going sell much, because medics will just keep them in reserve for when currently widespread drugs are fail.
the result is that there is no commercial incentive for pharmaceutical companies to make new antibiotics, because they won't sell in high numbers.
so... if you don't want people to die of antibiotic resistant infections, you need new antibiotics. but there is no point in a company making one because it costs billions and won't be sold or widely used. who should develop it, then?
there is a whole other argument that healthcare and health is a public good and so why accept at all that it's ethical to make a profit from it? But to be honest, I think we have it right in the UK. the nationalised healthcare system gives the NHS huge purchasing power so companies can make good profits from medical products without charging unethically by getting massive sales volumes. works well all round (more or less).
Edited by PlywoodPascal on Tuesday 25th June 10:42
Stick Legs said:
PlywoodPascal said:
Stick Legs said:
Anyone with ability, vision & purpose would make a fortune in the city.
.
Or do some other challenging but actually worthy and satisfying thing.
kers", damages politics every bit as much as plonkers my local MP betting on the date of the election.ATG said:
Except in the real world it often is. Mindless cynicism, like "all politicians are wkers", damages politics every bit as much as plonkers my local MP betting on the date of the election.
I'll call it less mindless cynicism but simply acceptance of reality. kers", damages politics every bit as much as plonkers my local MP betting on the date of the election.as far as this is concerned, well, you either keep large stocks and keep destroying them - ie waste, or you wait till you need them and join the scramble. While there is plenty of criticise the govt about as far as the covid related shambles is concerned, this just isn't really a big issue imo.
ChocolateFrog said:
Talk about being in the right place at the right time.
Sounds like a husband and wife team. Hope the rest of the employees got a nice bonus out of it.
They absolutely shafted the taxpayer with that exceedingly poor deal. IIRC the owners went overnight from run of the mill small business owners to buying up 8 figure luxury mansions worldwide.Sounds like a husband and wife team. Hope the rest of the employees got a nice bonus out of it.
If Johnson had taken Covid seriously in Janurary and Februrary 2020, and implemented measures to prevent Covid taking hold, prepare the NHS for situations seen in China, Iran and Italy (as they were unfolding), things probabaly would have gone differently.
Instead he ignored it. Avoid attending meetings that discussed it, and tried to promote the idea it wasn't going to be impactful on the UK.
Instead he ignored it. Avoid attending meetings that discussed it, and tried to promote the idea it wasn't going to be impactful on the UK.
ChocolateFrog said:
Leithen said:
ChocolateFrog said:
Talk about being in the right place at the right time.
Sounds like a husband and wife team. Hope the rest of the employees got a nice bonus out of it.
Article going to great lengths not to criticise the owners whilst at the same time writing a lot about them. Idiots.Sounds like a husband and wife team. Hope the rest of the employees got a nice bonus out of it.
Just the rampant profiteering.
tload of something you manufacture, what you going to do? Say no!? Of course not. Fair play to them. While everyone else was enjoying the sun on furlough, these guys were risking an awful lot in ramping up. They'll have had plenty of sleepless nights during this time. Paid off for them. Fair play.AB said:
ChocolateFrog said:
Leithen said:
ChocolateFrog said:
Talk about being in the right place at the right time.
Sounds like a husband and wife team. Hope the rest of the employees got a nice bonus out of it.
Article going to great lengths not to criticise the owners whilst at the same time writing a lot about them. Idiots.Sounds like a husband and wife team. Hope the rest of the employees got a nice bonus out of it.
Just the rampant profiteering.
tload of something you manufacture, what you going to do? Say no!? Of course not. Fair play to them. While everyone else was enjoying the sun on furlough, these guys were risking an awful lot in ramping up. They'll have had plenty of sleepless nights during this time. Paid off for them. Fair play.Gassing Station | News, Politics & Economics | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff