Face mask orders for West Midlands Ambulance Service sky rocket
West Midlands Ambulance Service workers are well on course to use more than a million more face masks than they did last year.
The fight against the deadly coronavirus has seen the service's face mask order between March and September last year jump from just 1,150 to 962,650.
That’s an increase of more than 80,000 per cent or 961,500 so far.
And with the second wave of the highly contagious virus in full swing across the nation, it is certain the service will be ordering even more.
The figures have been revealed under a Freedom of Information request.
The data also shows the service’s spend on PPE shot up in the same period from £249,486.11 to £3,603,835.01 - an increase of more than £3 million or over 1,300 per cent.
The service has refused to release the cost per item pre-pandemic versus the increase during the crisis, citing Section 43 of the Freedom of Information Act which protects trade secrets and commercially sensitive information.
The data further reveals that tens of thousands of litres more of hand sanitiser were used
A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman said: “As a service we have gone above and beyond to protect our staff, their families and our patients throughout the pandemic and will continue to do so. Making sure staff are wearing their PPE when attending patients will ensure exactly that.
“We have never had a shortage of PPE and we have invested in better quality PPE that is more suitable to the environments ambulance clinicians work in.
“Last year we were the first ambulance service in the country to provide Powered Respirator hoods. Further than that, we have ordered additional supplies to ensure staff have been given personal issue hoods, no other ambulance service is doing that.”
By Local Democracy Reporter Joe Burn
