stockpiling medical supplies in preparation for new Covid

Spains stockpiling medical supplies in preparation for new Covid-19 outbreaks


Monday 18th May 2020


Procurement officials have to report their reserves to the central government as part of the national deescalation plan

A plane carrying 65 tons of medical supplies from China lands at Manises airport in Valencia.


A plane carrying 65 tons of medical supplies from China lands at Manises airport in Valencia.Juan Carlos Cárdenas / EL PAÍS
After an initial scramble to purchase hard-to-find medical supplies amid the coronavirus pandemic, Spain’s health authorities have reported somewhat easier procurement conditions and a growing reserve of equipment to deal with future spikes.

The supply of protective gear has been one of the weak points in the country’s management of the Covid-19 crisis, which hit Spain particularly hard. The official death toll is 27,650, while nearly 124,000 people have been hospitalized.

The health crisis caught Spain without a strategic reserve of medical supplies. By the time authorities reacted, the international market was already saturated. Desperate procurement officials rushed to place orders, and occasionally ended up with subpar material.

We’ve all been scammed at some point. Now we have personnel that’s become specialized in checking the material and determining whether something looks suspicious

Jon Guajardo, Basque healthcare manager
On March 22, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced the creation of a strategic stockpile of personal protective equipment (PPE) and medication to deal with future pandemics as soon as the country develops “the capacity for self-supply.”

In the meantime, the Health Ministry has so far spent over a billion euros on medical equipment, including 140 million units of products that it is keeping at an undisclosed location. The ministry has also signed emergency contracts with four airline operators, and there are three weekly Madrid-Shanghai flights that deliver the shipments of medical supplies.

Regional governments – which have devolved powers over healthcare – are also stockpiling their own protective gear to make sure that they qualify to move forward in the four-phase deescalation plan devised by the central government.

Deescalation

A face mask manufacturing company in Talavera de la Reina (Toledo) is making nearly 20,000 masks a day.




Once a week, regional authorities have to report to the Health Ministry with an updated list of their existing supplies of face masks, PCR testing kits, eye gear, gloves, gowns, cotton swabs and hand sanitizer.

Having sufficient medical equipment to deal with a potential new surge in coronavirus cases is a condition for transitioning towards a “new normality” that is expected to arrive in late June at the earliest. Many regions of Spain are currently in Phase 1, which allows for limited social interaction and business activities. Madrid and Barcelona remain in Phase 0, while a few islands in the Canaries and the Balearics moved to Phase 2 on Monday.

Central authorities have just sent a letter to regional health chiefs asking them whether they have enough supplies to cover their needs for five weeks, and offering to send them equipment if they do not.

“Save for the odd exceptional situation, they [the regions] all have enough reserves,” said Fernando Simón, head of the Coordination Center for Health Alerts and Emergencies at a news conference on Sunday. “A few of them have only just enough.”

Regional authorities have criticized the government’s early decision, taken when the state of alarm was decreed on March 14, to centralize purchases rather than allow the regions to buy their own medical supplies. Central authorities say that these government purchases were just meant as additional support for regional governments, who were not prohibited from making their own purchases.

Procurement war

The stockpiling comes at an enormous cost. The region of Castilla-La Mancha, with a population of over two million, nearly 700,000 of whom live in the province of Toledo, needs 300,000 surgical masks a week.

“We have been at war,” says Luis Ruiz Molina, the regional secretary general for health services. “Buying is easier now, but prices are stuck at a high level and have not gone down.”

And it is still difficult to buy from manufacturers in China, where “products that were supposed to arrive today finally get here four or five days late.”

Alfredo Martínez, the contingency plan coordinator for the region of Navarre, says they have enough stock for a new spike, but “there is still tension to secure the material. When you don’t have problems with one product, you have them with a different one. The problem is the international market.”

We have been at war. Buying is easier now, but prices are stuck at a high level and have not gone down

Luis Ruiz Molina, head of health services of Castilla-La Mancha


Gloves are the problem right now: a box of 100 units that used to sell for three euros now costs up to €12. One of the Health Ministry’s latest contracts was for 17 million gloves, which cost €6 a box.

Faced with these issues, most procurement officials are now seeking local manufacturers. In Castilla-La Mancha, 57 companies have switched production and four of them have applied for health authorities’ approval to make face masks. And a Basque cooperative named Oiarso last month signed a contract with the Health Ministry to start making 10 million face masks a month for six months.

“Current consumption is very high and will remain so for a long time,” said Jon Guajardo, manager of the Galdácano healthcare area in the Basque province of Vizcaya. “We’ve had a lot of donations, and thanks to that we’ve managed to stay afloat.”

Guajardo adds there is “tremendous speculation” with prices, not to mention the defective products. “We’ve all been scammed at some point. Now we have personnel that’s become specialized in checking the material and determining whether something looks suspicious. We check everything before using it.”

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You would think the smart thing to do by all countries is to build factories that can roll these out at a minutes notice if/when this happens again instead of relying on China.

You would think the smart thing to do by all countries is to build factories that can roll these out at a minutes notice if/when this happens again instead of relying on China.

Agree - Don't understand why it's China that Spain have turned too - I posted before that it was reported a few months ago -
The stock that Spain got from China was faulty - The same as when we had to fly out and get from Turkey 3 days later .
Whichever country stock comes in from - get it tested and be ready - Let's hope we don't need to use it for this virus .

You would think the smart thing to do by all countries is to build factories that can roll these out at a minutes notice if/when this happens again instead of relying on China.

Agree - Don't understand why it's China that Spain have turned too - I posted before that it was reported a few months ago -
The stock that Spain got from China was faulty - The same as when we had to fly out and get from Turkey 3 days later .
Whichever country stock comes in from - get it tested and be ready - Let's hope we don't need to use it for this virus .

If our government haven't learnt from this, we are in dire straights! But after getting caught with our pants down once,I put nothing past this lot!! We have a manufacture of the material used for surgical gowns,whose main client has been Germany? ? I have read he is being used now,but through a third party! ! Reminds me of dad's army

You would think the smart thing to do by all countries is to build factories that can roll these out at a minutes notice if/when this happens again instead of relying on China.

Agree - Don't understand why it's China that Spain have turned too - I posted before that it was reported a few months ago -
The stock that Spain got from China was faulty - The same as when we had to fly out and get from Turkey 3 days later .
Whichever country stock comes in from - get it tested and be ready - Let's hope we don't need to use it for this virus .

If our government haven't learnt from this, we are in dire straights! But after getting caught with our pants down once,I put nothing past this lot!! We have a manufacture of the material used for surgical gowns,whose main client has been Germany? ? I have read he is being used now,but through a third party! ! Reminds me of dad's army

yes the Germans buy surgical gown material of us , we buy tests from Switzerland. Spain buys PPE from China etc etc.. been that way since ships had sails.. and its not just our government that got caught the whole world did..

You would think the smart thing to do by all countries is to build factories that can roll these out at a minutes notice if/when this happens again instead of relying on China.

Agree - Don't understand why it's China that Spain have turned too - I posted before that it was reported a few months ago -
The stock that Spain got from China was faulty - The same as when we had to fly out and get from Turkey 3 days later .
Whichever country stock comes in from - get it tested and be ready - Let's hope we don't need to use it for this virus .

If our government haven't learnt from this, we are in dire straights! But after getting caught with our pants down once,I put nothing past this lot!! We have a manufacture of the material used for surgical gowns,whose main client has been Germany? ? I have read he is being used now,but through a third party! ! Reminds me of dad's army

yes the Germans buy surgical gown material of us , we buy tests from Switzerland. Spain buys PPE from China etc etc.. been that way since ships had sails.. and its not just our government that got caught the whole world did..

I don't doubt it mate,I just find it ludicrous, that although we were desperately searching for gowns,instead of taking the guys offer up,to supply for us,he was at first declined! ! We buy tests from Switzerland as they are world leaders in that field.he is now being contracted to the NHS, but through an agency! Thus costing more.my point being is that we have had our fingers burned over this virus,and that the government should be going all out to make sure we are never put in this situation again,by manufacturing our own ppe in this country, thus lessening the reliance of other countries,who in a few cases,have been sending not fit for purpose items off ppe/testing equipment.is it really that f@cking hard?

You would think the smart thing to do by all countries is to build factories that can roll these out at a minutes notice if/when this happens again instead of relying on China.

Agree - Don't understand why it's China that Spain have turned too - I posted before that it was reported a few months ago -
The stock that Spain got from China was faulty - The same as when we had to fly out and get from Turkey 3 days later .
Whichever country stock comes in from - get it tested and be ready - Let's hope we don't need to use it for this virus .

If our government haven't learnt from this, we are in dire straights! But after getting caught with our pants down once,I put nothing past this lot!! We have a manufacture of the material used for surgical gowns,whose main client has been Germany? ? I have read he is being used now,but through a third party! ! Reminds me of dad's army

yes the Germans buy surgical gown material of us , we buy tests from Switzerland. Spain buys PPE from China etc etc.. been that way since ships had sails.. and its not just our government that got caught the whole world did..

I don't doubt it mate,I just find it ludicrous, that although we were desperately searching for gowns,instead of taking the guys offer up,to supply for us,he was at first declined! ! We buy tests from Switzerland as they are world leaders in that field.he is now being contracted to the NHS, but through an agency! Thus costing more.my point being is that we have had our fingers burned over this virus,and that the government should be going all out to make sure we are never put in this situation again,by manufacturing our own ppe in this country, thus lessening the reliance of other countries,who in a few cases,have been sending not fit for purpose items off ppe/testing equipment.is it really that f@cking hard?

well it must be that f*cking hard because every single country got caught on by it starting with China who were buying everything they could get their hands on in January to Italy whose health service overloaded and were short of absolutely everything.. to Germany whose doctors did a nude PPE protest to the USA the worlds biggest economy to ourselves and every country in-between....so don't really see how you can blame anyone for getting something wrong that nobody got right... id understand if everyone else apart from ourselves had it sorted.. id understand if we were worse sorting equipment than everyone else but we were neither . as for the fella producing material for gowns.. I don't know. but id imagine sourcing material to make gowns was down the list behind sourcing the finished article..

In fairness a lot of the offers the government got they could not take because none of it was tested. They cant just get joe blogs to make masks and other PPE and put them on the front line without testing they work. The compensation claims would bankrupt the country if people died.

Every country in the world struggled for it even though we only see the british government getting slated as it suits certain peoples agendas , just like the death toll and lockdown fines numbers.

Everything can be twisted to make the government look bad

The governments next step really should be to nationalise a sector for PPE in make our own stockpiles from that using british companies and british materials. Maybe build those factories or use ones that have closed in parts of Britain that need the work not London

In fairness a lot of the offers the government got they could not take because none of it was tested. They cant just get joe blogs to make masks and other PPE and put them on the front line without testing they work. The compensation claims would bankrupt the country if people died.

Every country in the world struggled for it even though we only see the british government getting slated as it suits certain peoples agendas , just like the death toll and lockdown fines numbers.

Everything can be twisted to make the government look bad

The governments next step really should be to nationalise a sector for PPE in make our own stockpiles from that using british companies and british materials. Maybe build those factories or use ones that have closed in parts of Britain that need the work not London

im sure all governments will be better prepared going forward mate..
as for our government I have a few gripes myself, mostly the disproportionate distribution of hand outs. but how anyone can slam them for having a problem here that is worldwide beats me..

Testing will be another key factor .