Publication of Weekly Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Deliveries, Northern Ireland: W/E 6 March to W/E 31 July 2020

The Health and Social Care (HSC) Northern Ireland Business Services Organisation (BSO) has today published new experimental statistics on PPE items which have been issued to HSC in Northern Ireland.

The data included in these tables presents the latest available number of PPE items and Covid-19 impacted products which have been delivered by the Procurement and Logistics Service (PaLS) in BSO to the HSC system in Northern Ireland, from the BSO central distribution centre.

Some Primary Care providers (such as dentists, GPs, pharmacists and optometrists) may use equipment provided by PaLS, but will also separately purchase other equipment in addition to this. This is also true of Secondary Care providers but to a much lesser extent. The figures presented in this document only represent those items delivered by PaLS, not those purchased / sourced directly from other PPE providers.

The intention is for the BSO to publish monthly statistics on weekly PPE deliveries whilst this information remains relevant to the Government’s response to the Coronavirus, Covid-19 pandemic. Future updates will be released on the second Wednesday of each month and will include weekly information up to the end of the previous month.

The publication is available on the BSO’s website at: http://www.hscbusiness.hscni.net/services/3190.htm

The key points from the report are:

• In the period 2 March to 31 July 2020, BSO delivered 167.5m items of core PPE to the NI HSC.
• This compares to the just over 19m core items delivered between 1 January and 29 February 2020.
• The peak delivery weeks during the reporting period were week ending 3 April and week ending 17 April when around 15m items were delivered – about twice the weekly average.
• Gloves, Type IIR face masks and aprons make up the vast majority (94%) of core items delivered.

Notes to editors: 

1. The data included in these tables presents the latest number of core PPE items and COVID-19 impacted products which have been delivered by the Procurement and Logistics Service (PaLS) in BSO to the HSC system in Northern Ireland, from the BSO central distribution centre.

2. Primary Care providers (e.g. dentists) may use equipment provided by PaLS, but may also separately purchase other equipment in addition to this. This is also true of Secondary Care providers but to a much lesser extent. The figures presented in this document only represent those items delivered by PaLS, not those purchased / sourced from other providers. The data do not therefore constitute all PPE available to Trusts, social care and primary care providers.

3. Definitions:

• Core PPE items are those items of Personal Protective Equipment which are recommended by Public Health England for use by Health and Social Care workers. These items are: disposable gloves, disposable plastic apron, disposable fluid-repellent coverall / gown, surgical mask, fluid-resistant (Type IIR) surgical mask, filtering face piece respirator (FFP3 Mask) and eye/ face protection. Further information on these items and their recommended usage is available from Public Health England.
• COVID-19 impacted Items include deliveries of items that have seen increased demand during the pandemic, but are not viewed as items of PPE by BSO PaLS. These include surgical scrubs, hand sanitisers, surgical / theatre caps and hand wipes.

4. The data are collected from management information from the HSC FPL system between 2 March 2020 and 31 July 2020. For context additional information on PPE items supplied between 1 January and 29 February is provided in the report.

5. These experimental statistics are based on management information sources, some of which, historically, may not be as robust as those which feed other official statistics series. The data may therefore be subject to future revisions.

6. Caution should be applied when comparing statistics across other countries in the United Kingdom as counting rules may differ, in particular the types of PPE that are included in the core series.

7. The timetable for the release of the monthly updates will be published on the BSO website:

and all publications, will be formally announced on the UK.GOV Release Calendar:

8. Electronic copies of the excel tables are available free of charge from the BSO website.

9. Experimental Statistics - This is an Experimental Statistics publication. Experimental statistics are statistics that are in the testing phase and not yet fully developed. Find out more about experimental statistics from the Governmental Statistics Service (GSS)

10. For further information please contact:

Information Unit
Family Practitioner Services
Business Services Organisation
2 Franklin Street
Belfast BT2 8DQ

11. For media enquiries please contact DoH Press Office by email: pressoffice@health-ni.gov.uk. 

12. Follow us on twitter @healthdpt.

13. The Executive Information Service operates an out of hours service for media enquiries between 1800hrs and 0800hrs Monday to Friday and at weekends and public holidays. The duty press officer can be contacted on 028 9037 8110.

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