Luton factory jobs at risk after government pulls PPE deal with NHS

BELL Packaging Ltd, based at Barratt Industrial Park on Airport Way, has been in business for over 40 years. The firm typically produces plastic film but has resorted to making PPE during the coronavirus lockdown.

From May 1, NHS Hospital Trusts have been barred from ordering their own PPE – which must now be sourced from central government – with many orders going en masse to manufacturers abroad, including China.

“The really galling thing is that we have the facilities to make these PPE products which met with everyone’s approval,” said BELL managing director Peter Lennie.

“But we’ve now been told that all PPE must be ordered through central government.

“We’ve approached the Department for Health and Social Care to be placed on their approved suppliers list, but unless that happens quickly I don’t know what we’re going to do.

“Business as usual is gone.

"No-one knows when high street shops will reopen or if people will start spending again.”

NHS Trusts began ordering their own PPE in March after serious shortages were identified.

It has proved a lifeline for factories including BELL, whose orders have plummeted during the lockdown.

BELL approached Watford Hospital and the Lister Hospital NHS Trusts, and worked with their consultants to develop a range of eye protectors and face visors that have been supplied to hospitals and pharmacies across the UK.

But as of this month, all UK PPE manufacturers must be on the government’s approved suppliers list – a process which BELL claims is long-winded and difficult.

And at least one NHS Trust CEO has told staff to ignore the government's order to stop buying PPE directly (see here).

The Daily Telegraph also reported on Saturday that UK ministers had allegedly paid 25 per cent over the odds ordering surgical gowns from a Chinese manufacturer after rejecting a lower offer from a UK start-up company.

Mr Lennie added: “We should be encouraging British manufacturing and preserving jobs in the UK.

“For now, we have three factories in the UK with a warehouse of raw material to make these products but we have no more orders.

“We have a skilled workforce desperate to work but nothing to do.”

A spokesman for the Department of Health & Social Care failed to comment before we went to press.