Buying PPE online is ‘like the Wild West’, says care service director whose company paid £60,000 for non-existent stock
- Care agencies have been turning to online supplies due to lack of PPE provided
- AMG Nursing and Care Service were scammed when ordering 100,000 masks
- Director Rachel Simpson said they had to pay upfront and stock never came
Buying PPE online is ‘like the Wild West’, according to a care service director whose company paid £60,000 for non-existent stock.
Care agencies across the UK have been turning to online suppliers due to a lack of protective equipment for their staff.
However, AMG Nursing and Care Services, which employs 1,500 carers, were scammed when they put in a desperate order for 100,000 masks.
A home care agency in Borehamwood receives their supply of PPE on May 1. Many other care agencies have turned to online suppliers as they cannot get PPE from usual suppliers
The company has been unable to source PPE from its usual supplier as it is out of stock, meaning they have had no option but to look online, according to managers.
‘We’re in a situation where we don’t know who we’re dealing with,’ operations director Rachel Simpson told the BBC.
AMG Nursing and Care Services were scammed when they put ordered 100,000 masks. Operations director Rachel Simpson said they had to pay upfront but the order never arrived.
She said: ‘We’ve put in an order for 100,000 masks at £60,000.
‘We had to pay upfront, as we are required to do with all suppliers at the moment, and the stock never came.’
Yesterday Wilf Williams, Kent and Medway NHS Covid-19 strategic commander, appealed to buyers to avoid ‘bogus online offers’ which would cause them to ‘fall foul of poor quality kit and outright scams’.
Nick Hulme, chief executive of East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust, confirmed there was ‘blatant profiteering’ going on in the PPE supply market, with prices rising more than eightfold in some cases.
Coveralls that were listed for £2 in January by one company now coasted £16.50, he claimed.
He also said the trust had ‘been inundated with offers of PPE both from this country and abroad’ at exploitative prices.
Mr Hulme added: ‘I probably get between 10 and 15 emails a day offering me all sorts of PPE that I know isn’t available
‘There’s no amount of supply chain issues that could demand that sort of increase and this for me was blatant profiteering.
‘It’s completely unacceptable.’
Private companies are at a disadvantage when it comes to sourcing PPE as they have to buy it on the free market, instead of being able to purchase it through the NHS supply chain.
Last month care home bosses accused the government of a ‘shambolic’ response to the sector’s coronavirus crisis, with insiders claiming they were only receiving ‘paltry’ deliveries of essential PPE.
PPE purchases for care homes and providers became VAT-free yesterday until 31 July.