Just going by the parliamentary public spending watchdog report the answer has to be YES!
Why would any Government go out and source substandard quality PPE if we had enough?
The tweets were terse and, to the uninitiated, obscure. “Gowns” — “examination gloves” — “green aprons” — read the messages from the accounts of procurement leaders in the UK’s National Health Service. But to their colleagues in other hospitals, each represented a cry for help, signalling shortfalls of key items of personal protective equipment (PPE) needed to keep clinicians safe while they fought a once-in-a-century battle against coronavirus.
Today’s report by the National Audit Office (NAO) finds that government was initially reliant on stockpiles of personal protective equipment (PPE) that proved inadequate for the COVID-19 pandemic. In a rapidly deteriorating situation government made a huge effort to boost supply, but it has paid very high prices due to unusual market conditions and many front-line workers reported shortages of PPE.
10 February 2021
The UK government wasted hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on poor quality and unusable personal protective equipment (PPE) while leaving frontline workers insufficiently protected from covid-19, the parliamentary public spending watchdog has concluded.
LINKS
https://fullfact.org/health/ppe-shortages-first-wave
FT - How poor planning left the UK without enough PPE
BMJ - Covid-19: Government wasted millions on poor quality PPE, spending watchdog finds
NAO - The supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) during the COVID-19 pandemic
