Personal protective equipment items issued: up to 24 October 2021

These statistics show the latest number of PPE items which have been issued to the health and social care system in Wales.

• Since 9 March 2020, the NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership (NWSSP) has issued over 1 billion items of PPE to the health and social care sectors in Wales. Around 477 million of these were issued to the social care sector.
• In the seven days to Sunday 24 October 2021, about 5 million items were issued.
• The weekly number of PPE items issued has generally increased from March 2020 reaching a peak of 20.2 million in May 2020. Since then, the number of items issued each week fluctuates but has generally remained around 10 million with the exception of the week ending 28 March 2021 when 31.5 million items were issued.

Source: NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership

The reporting of PPE items issued is based on individual units, except for:

• gloves where a unit is reported based on the unit size of a pack
• hand sanitiser where the unit is a bottle regardless of size

Please note: This data is subject to revisions and previous publications are not revised. The latest figures are the most up to date and cumulative figures will include any historical revisions.

From May 2021 FFP3 masks have been split into two categories FFP3 masks (3M) and FFP3 masks (other). These categories provide a further breakdown of stock levels to allow more detailed monitoring and have been backdated to July 2020 in the statistics presented in this release and the associated StatsWales tables.

Table 1 presents the data for the latest week. More detailed tables including the full weekly breakdowns since the previous publication are available on StatsWales.

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Fluctuations in the weekly number of PPE items issued occur when local stores use their existing stocks which results in fewer items issued for that week. Bank holidays will also have an impact on the amount of stock ordered and may result in a decrease the following week. There is a fall in items issued in the latest week due to a system upgrade but this would have been compensated for in previous weeks.

PPE for vaccination packs are issued in bulk and then used over a number of weeks. This can lead to higher numbers of some items issued (such as Type IIR masks) for some weeks. This was the cause of the increase in items issued for the week ending 28 March 2021.

The data accompanying this chart is available on StatsWales.

This data is management information provided to the Welsh Government by the NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership (NWSSP). NWSSP procures and distributes PPE for the health and social care sectors in Wales on behalf of the Welsh Government.  We are publishing this to provide a weekly summary of PPE items issued while it remains relevant to the response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. This data has not undergone the same level of quality assurance as official statistics and the data may be subject to future revisions.

Local health boards request items of PPE from NWSSP via an online system. These items are then distributed from the NWSSP warehouses on scheduled delivery slots. Processes also exist for local health boards to request emergency deliveries of PPE if needed, and these emergency deliveries of PPE are included in this data. It is possible for some items to occasionally be rationed if stocks are low. Local health boards hold their own stocks of PPE and may also obtain supplies separately to this process. Data includes stock issued from NWSSP only and does not include any stock procured directly by the NHS or local authorities. The data will include PPE procured directly by NWSSP as well as PPE distributed to NWSSP by the UK Government. It reflects a snapshot at a point in time of a dynamic position.

PPE for vaccination packs are issued in bulk and then used over a number of weeks. This can lead to higher numbers of some items issued (such as Type IIR masks) for some weeks.

This release reports on PPE items issued since 9 March 2020 as this represents the point at which the current reporting arrangements were established.

Data for England is published on the Coronavirus (COVID-19) statistics and analysis pages of the GOV.UK website

Data for Scotland is published on the Coronavirus (COVID-19) PPE distribution statistics pages of the GOV.SCOT website

Data for Northern Ireland is published on the Coronavirus (COVID-19) statistics pages of the NISRA.GOV.UK website

These data are not comparable due to different definitions and breakdowns of PPE items between nations.

Data included in this release is correct at 8pm on 24 October 2021.

National Statistics status

These statistics are not National Statistics. However, as far as has been practicable, they have been collected and validated in accordance with the pillars and principles within the Code of Practice for Statistics. We continue to develop the data collection and quality assurance process to improve the data.

These statistics have been produced quickly in response to developing world events.

Well-being of Future Generations Act

The Well-being of Future Generations Act 2015 is about improving the social, economic, environmental and cultural wellbeing of Wales. The Act puts in place seven wellbeing goals for Wales. These are for a more equal, prosperous, resilient, healthier and globally responsible Wales, with cohesive communities and a vibrant culture and thriving Welsh language. Under section (10)(1) of the Act, the Welsh Ministers must (a) publish indicators ('national indicators') that must be applied for the purpose of measuring progress towards the achievement of the wellbeing goals, and (b) lay a copy of the national indicators before Senedd Cymru. The 46 national indicators were laid in March 2016.

Information on the indicators, along with narratives for each of the well-being goals and associated technical information is available in the Well-being of Wales report.

Further information on the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015.

The statistics included in this release could also provide supporting narrative to the national indicators and be used by public services boards in relation to their local wellbeing assessments and local wellbeing plans.

Next update

The frequency of this release has changed from fortnightly to monthly and includes data for the latest week. More detailed tables including the full weekly breakdowns since the previous publication are available on StatsWales.

The next release will be on Thursday 2 December 2021.

We want your feedback

We welcome any feedback on any aspect of these statistics which can be provided by email to kas.covid19@gov.wales.

Statistician: Lisa Bloemberg
Telephone: 0300 025 0166
Email: kas.covid19@gov.wales

Media: 0300 025 8099

SFR 342/2021