AQW 8320/17-22


Mr Stewart Dickson
Alliance Party
East Antrim


Tabled Date: 07/10/2020
Answered On Date: 20/10/2020
Priority Written: No


Question:
To ask the Minister of Health (i) how much Personal Protective Equipment is stored in Health and Social Care facilities; (ii) how much is being stored in private/rented storage; and (iii) what is the cost of such storage.


Answer:
Due to the volumes of PPE required, particularly during the current Covid-19 pandemic, it has been necessary for Health and Social Care (HSC) organisations to store goods in both health owned premises as well as commercially rented property. While there has been an increase in the use of commercially rented storage facilities, HSC organisations also rent commercial premises for storage as part of normal business. Therefore, the costs presented below include normal business costs as well as those costs incurred specifically as a result of Covid-19.
Stock in hand of PPE is currently 368 million items of PPE of which 97% is centrally stored for onward distribution..
The split of storage of PPE and commercial cost of storage is as follows:
Organisation
Percentage (%) PPE in HSC owned storage
Percentage (%) PPE in Commercial Storage
Commercial Rent Costs per annum (£000)**
Belfast Trust
100
N/A
N/A
Business Services Organisation
-
100*
1,608
Northern Trust
12
88
90
NI Ambulance Service Trust
-
100
19
South Eastern Trust
100
N/A
N/A
Southern Trust***
-
100
40
Western Trust
6
94
37
*includes PPE stored in business as usual properties
** includes rates costs where applicable/known
*** Southern Trust is currently in the process of moving all PPE stocks to commercial storage as a temporary measure