The bureaucracy surrounding personal protective equipment procurement is putting lives on the line.

My latest for the @Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/22/nhss-soviet-style-command-control-system-driving-ppe-woes/

1. The Govt’s centralised procurement process is creating bottlenecks.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock revealed they are working with just 159 of the over 8,000 offers.

Many many opportunities for procurement have been lost simply as a result of missing offers.

The focus on larger orders has proven risky.

The UK waited five days for a much-needed shipment of gowns from Turkey.

2. The provision of PPE is also entangled in red tape.

While standards are necessary, changing these around and excessive specification makes it a lot more difficult to procure supplies.

The NHS request for PPE makes no mention of the American-standard N95 masks, instead preferring European standards such as FFP2 and FFP3.

Public Health England’s guidance on appropriate PPE fails to even mention the KN95 – the Chinese-standard which evidence reviews find is equivalent.

KN95 has been approved for import and use in the US. It is also being used in other parts of Europe.

Supermarkets in contrast have lent into a complex, highly diversified supply chains involving millions of moving parts across the country and the world.

A starry-eyed Boris Johnson warned from the backbench in 2002 that Britain is excessively reliant on a “top-down, monopolistic healthcare service.”

When this crisis is over, I hope that the PM will consider making the reforms the system so urgently needs. The fantastic doctors and nurses who saved his life deserve no less.