Experimental statistics – personal protective equipment distributed for use by health and social care services in England: 1 March to 31 March 2022

These statistics show the latest number of personal protective equipment (PPE) items which have been distributed by the government, for use by health and social care services in England.

In publishing this data, we aim to provide a regular summary for ministers, policy makers, external stakeholders and the public on PPE items distributed. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) intends to release these statistics regularly while they remain relevant to the government’s response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The next update will be issued in July on the second Thursday of the month and will be published quarterly from then on. We expect quarterly publications will fully meet the needs of users as PPE distribution patterns are now relatively stable over time.

Main points From 25 February 2020 to 31 March 2022, DHSC distributed 19.8 billion items of PPE, predominantly for use by health and social care services in England.

In the first full year of operations (from 25 February 2020 to 24 February 2021), 8.74 billion items of PPE were distributed predominantly for use by health and social care services in England.

This compares with approximately 2.43 billion items distributed between 1 January and 31 December 2019 to all NHS trusts and some social care organisations. This figure is a partial snapshot of the PPE used in the system before the COVID-19 pandemic. The NHS Supply Chain has since been expanded to 58,000 different settings, including care homes, hospices and community care organisations, many of which use the e-Portal to order PPE.

In the latest month, between 1 March and 31 March 2022, DHSC distributed 675 million PPE items for use by health and social care services in England. These are distributed through the PPE Dedicated Supply Channel, NHS Supply Chain and other routes (see Table 1 for more details).

PPE was first ordered through the e-Portal on 9 April 2020. From 9 April 2020 to 31 March 2022, 6.91 billion PPE items have been ordered through the e-Portal.

In the latest month between 1 March and 31 March 2022, 364 million PPE items have been ordered through the e-Portal.

Organisations may procure additional PPE independently of the PPE programme. Any additional PPE is not included in this data.