Published on: 18 April 2023

For the past 3 years PPE equipment such as Nitrile examination gloves, aprons, masks and gowns have been provided free of charge from NHS England on the NHS Foundry system. These items have been requested, delivered in bulk and distributed by the CHoICE Procurement services across the organisation.

NHS England have notified that over the course of the next 12 months the PPE items will be phased back into business as usual ordering processes and NHS Organisations will now be charged for these items as they were pre-COVID pandemic, as and when stocks of the free PPE is depleted.

The first product to be moved back to being charged and normal ordering processes is Nitrile examination gloves. The last distribution of the gloves from the PPE distribution will be this week.

From Monday 24th April -  If your department has the materials management service, then your materials management stock controller will add the nitrile examination gloves back onto materials management and will manage the ordering and re-stocking of these items. However If your department is a department without materials management or area is in one of our community sites then you will need to commence ordering of the gloves via the NHS Supply Chain Stock system, as you did pre-pandemic.  

The catalogue codes you will need to use when ordering is:

FTG930 – Extra Small

FTG934 – Small

FTG931 – Medium

FTG933 – Large

Please note that unit of issue is a single box of 200 gloves, so you will need to order a quantity of 10 if you wish to order a case of gloves.

Further updates will be provided during the course of the next 12 months as to as and when other PPE items move back to normal business as usual ordering processes.

If you have any queries please contact:

For general PPE queries - Ian Graham, Deputy Procurement Operation Manager, Ext 41433 or e-mail: i.graham1@nhs.net

For deliveries of PPE equipment: For Sunderland Main Hospital site and community areas - Ashley Lounton, Ext: 41433 or e-mail: Ashley.lounton@nhs.net

For South Tyneside Hospital Site and community areas -  Rachel Winter, Ext 2963 or e-mail: Rachel.winter17@nhs.net

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