Profiteering PPE sellers hiked prices of body bags and gowns by over 1000% during Covid crisis

SPIV speculators hiked the price of body bags and gowns by over 1,000 per cent during the Covid crisis, an alarming report has found.

Low stockpiles and a global stampede for PPE meant the government had to pay sky-high prices, the National Audit Office said.

Ministers forked out an eye-watering £12.5billion for the life-saving kit between February and July as prices rocketed.

The same amount of kit would have cost just £2.5bn at 2019 prices – leaving taxpayers with a stinging £10bn bill, the watchdog found.

Gareth Davies, boss of the NAO, warned: “The price of PPE increased dramatically, and that alone has cost the taxpayer around £10 billion.

“There are important lessons for the government to learn as it continues to tackle the pandemic.

“This includes fully understanding not just the requirements of the NHS, but also social care providers so that they can be better supported in future.”

The report lays bare the sheer scale of the naked profiteering of PPE suppliers, just as the first Covid wave threatened to overwhelm hospitals.

The price of body bags rocketed by 1,310 per cent – from just £1 each to £14 each.

Gowns and overalls saw their costs soar by 1,277 per cent – going from 33 pence each to £4.50 each.

The cost of gloves rocketed by 519 per cent, hand sanitiser by 450 per cent and face masks by 258 per cent, the report found.Hundreds of millions of pounds were wasted on PPE kit that turned out to be useless.

While ministers woefully failed to supply care homes with the protective gear they desperately needed.

These residential homes got just 10 per cent of the PPE they needed from the government between March and July this year – leaving them to desperately try to buy up what they could alone.

Meanwhile, the killer bug ripped through the sector killing many vulnerable residents.

‘A SCRAMBLE’

Labour MP Meg Hillier, boss of the Public Accounts Committee, said:

“The pandemic caught the NHS on the wrong foot.

“The national stockpile was nowhere near big enough for a coronavirus outbreak – a consequence of the pandemic plans’ fixation on influenza.

“The government was far too slow to recognise how precarious the position was.

“When the penny finally dropped the Department of Health had to scramble to buy what was left as prices went through the roof.

“The social care sector was largely left to fend for itself in the early months, while health workers couldn’t always get the PPE they needed.

“Shortages and confusing guidance added to the strain on front line workers.”

Health Minister Jo Churchill said: “As the NAO report recognises, during this unprecedented pandemic all the NHS providers audited ‘were always able to get what they needed in time’ thanks to the herculean effort of Government, NHS, Armed Forces, civil servants and industry who delivered around 5 billion items of PPE to the frontline at record speed.

“We set up robust and resilient supply chains from scratch and expanded our distribution network from 226 NHS trusts to over 58,000 health and care settings.

“With almost 32 billion items of PPE ordered we are confident we can provide a continuous supply to our amazing frontline workers over the coming months and respond to future eventualities.”