By Mike Hegarty, Global Supply Chain and Logistics Director, 2SAN
To mask or not to mask, to test or not to test, may well be the questions asked if the UK is hit with another wave of COVID-19 this winter. Our preparedness and the steps we take now to ensure we have the right arsenal of solutions to test, trace and prevent are of vital importance.
Understandably, health officials want to ensure communities are taking all available steps to protect themselves and their loved ones – especially those in vulnerable groups. It’s a tough environment and COVID-19 fatigue is real beyond just the medical diagnosis. It permeates through health care professionals and many UK households.
Peaks and troughs of COVID-19 continue to prove a nightmare for procurement planning and supply chain management – as the UK Government tries its best to balance ongoing public health demands as well as very real cost pressures to budgets which place constraints on the NHS.
For instance, when COVID-19 first hit, the UK’s national medical stockpile was limited and not prepared for a global pandemic. Masks weren’t readily available and there weren’t enough gloves, gowns or masks. This placed the UK at a disadvantage. Alongside other governments we experienced an international ‘hunger games’ - first for PPE, then testing (PCR and then lateral flow tests) followed by vaccines.
The consequence was massive inefficiencies and huge spending of public money, in-turn creating both price and supply risk for governments across the globe as they spent billions trying to protect their public. It also resulted in a ‘boom and bust’ procurement environment for the private sector supplying vital medical equipment and solutions.
Various parliamentary inquiries since have highlighted the UK’s critical dependencies on foreign sourced materials – and the exposure of our supply chains. Much has been discussed about improving the UK’s manufacturing sovereignty, but this does need some balance against the reality that raw materials will still need to be imported, as well as the cost and scalability of local manufacturing in a globally competitive environment. In my time, I have seen many products quoting sovereignty only to be unveiled as ‘assembled’ in that country. International manufacturing can, and should, play an important role, especially in the near to mid-term.