Future pandemic Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) supplies in Scotland

The Covid-19 pandemic brought unprecedented challenges to the supply of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in Scotland. The Scottish Government is now working to ensure Scotland is fully prepared for any future pandemic by learning from experience, promoting innovation, and having strong, sustainable foundations for the provision of PPE in any future pandemic.

On 25 January 2022, the Scottish Government published a consultation seeking views on the lessons we should learn from the COVID-19 pandemic, and the proposed new strategic arrangements for pandemic PPE supply in Scotland, specifically public sector collaboration on PPE supply, future stockpiling arrangements, and how we can support private and third sector organisations in the event of a future pandemic.

We received 164 responses from a range of stakeholders, including individuals and organisations. 

Lessons learned

There was widespread agreement with each of the seven lessons outlined in the consultation:

• collaboration and communication between the Scottish Government and stakeholders are an integral part of PPE supply (96% agreed)
• primary care and adult social care require a long term, sustainable PPE supply strategy (96%)
• surge capacity should be incorporated to future PPE supply and stockpiling arrangements (96%)
• progress made during the Covid-19 pandemic must be built upon to support new, domestic supply chains and data modelling (93%)
• cross public sector collaboration with the NHS on PPE supply issues should be considered (92%)
• a reformed stockpiling and buying approach for pandemic PPE is required (91%)
• the strategy should consider how private and third sector organisations can prepare for pandemics (91%).

Additional lessons were identified including issues around more equitable access to supplies across different sectors; inflated PPE prices; and minimising waste.

Preparing our PPE stocks for future pandemics

The responses to the questions regarding preparing our PPE stocks for future pandemics were as follows:

• There was broad support for Scotland having its own pandemic PPE stockpile: 80% were in favour.
• Questions about which organisations or sectors should have access to the stockpile elicited some mixed views.
• There was strong support for the Scottish Government having a role in supporting private businesses providing an essential public service and the third sector (79%).
• Another important issue was the extent to which organisations with access to the stockpile should contribute to its costs. Comments were relatively evenly split between those who felt organisations should pay towards the costs of the stockpile and those who argued that the Scottish Government should fund it, either for all organisations or for certain sectors.
• There were some differences in opinion as to whether private and third sector organisations should pay for PPE.
• Almost two thirds (64%) agreed that mechanisms should be found to split the cost of pandemic PPE between the organisations using the stockpile.
• Just under half (45%) indicated their organisation would be willing to take part in a collaborative buying approach for pandemic PPE with the NHS. Willingness was highest among Health and Social Care Partnerships, other public sector bodies and local authorities.
• Over three quarters (77%) felt this would support Scottish manufacturing, and 79% agreed it would improve Scotland’s resilience in a future pandemic.
• Respondents were invited to comment on the proposed arrangements for their sector. Fifty-nine per cent of respondents agreed with the proposed arrangements in their sector. In free text responses, there were some favourable comments, but the most common response was a request for more details about the proposals.

The Scottish Government's analysis of responses to the Future pandemic PPE supplies in Scotland consultation was published on 12^th November 2022.

The responses from the consultation analysis will be used alongside information from stakeholder engagement that is being undertaken to inform and develop a new approach to pandemic PPE. This will provide a more resilient supply across Health, Social Care and the wider public sector for the long term, with due priority given to the need for robust supply chains and reductions in environmental impact.  We expect that the new arrangements should start to come on stream during the next financial year, 2023-24.