A shipment of personal protective equipment (PPE) rushed to the UK arrived from Turkey turned out to “not be of the quality that we feel is good enough for our frontline staff”, a minister admitted on Wednesday.
The 84-tonne shipment, including 400,000 medical gowns, has been impounded in a government warehouse near Heathrow Airport in west London, the Daily Telegraph reports.
Ministers secured a substantial supply of gowns from Turkey, which, after an initial delay, arrived on 22 April, as Breitbart News reported.
“We believed this equipment was going to be of the right standard, but when our experts here tested it, they found it wasn’t,” Cabinet Minister Brandon Lewis told Sky News.
“All the PPE that we acquire, we expect it to be of a standard that we set out when we purchase it.”
Lewis would not comment on whether the consignment should have been checked before it left Turkey, but acknowledged “in this instance some of it has turned out not to be good enough.”
He also refused to disclose how much money was spent on them, but said it is “reassuring that our experts are very focused on ensuring the best quality of equipment”.
Issues over the supply of protective equipment such as gowns and masks for health workers have plagued the UK government throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
Despite local designers like Barbour turning to mass-producing gowns, the UK lacks the ability to meet demand as manufacturing has switched offshore to foreign suppliers, particularly China.
As Breitbart News reported, concerns have also been raised over the quality of Chinese-made products after the UK and Europe have found coronavirus testing kits and masks do not work despite claims the materials were E.U.-certified.