A BRIT businessman tonight revealed Turkey has begged him to urgently supply PPE gear — as an RAF plane sat waiting in that country to pick up vital supplies for our NHS.
The defence logistics boss who revealed the fiasco offered tens of millions of face masks, gloves, gowns and visors to the UK Government over a month ago.
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But while his offer has been mired in red-tape, panicked Turkish suppliers have contacted him asking for help to fulfil orders.
It means the Turks are now asking British companies for equipment — while UK firms’ offers of help to ease the desperate shortage here have been ignored or not processed quickly enough.
It has emerged millions of pieces of PPE are being shipped from British warehouses to Germany, Spain and Italy.
Firms here say they have “no choice” but to flog lifesaving gear to supply hospitals in the EU because offers to help the NHS were repeatedly ignored by the UK Government.
The businessman, who does not want to be named but whose company is known worldwide, told The Sun: “It’s absolutely staggering.
“We’ve got contacts all over the world and we’ve spent more than four weeks trying to offer tens of millions of items of PPE to the Government.
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“Then, over the weekend, we get a call from Turkey saying they’re desperate, they need the kit.
“When I heard the Turks were on the phone while our RAF plane was sitting on the runway, I nearly fell off my chair.”
The chief executive hit out as the RAF cargo plane sat idly on the tarmac for a second day in Istanbul.
Tonight it was poised to finally take off carrying only part of the order placed by the UK.
UK purchasing officials have spent four weeks looking at the boss’s offer after he made contact via a Government website.
He said: “The process itself is just a nightmare, just full of red tape with the same forms coming back to you.”
He added: “The problem is that the kit we can get will go.
“At the moment, if we get the go-ahead, we can source everything.
“But the US and other countries are coming in and buying up these production lines really quickly.”
The Sun can reveal ministers are paying foreign firms millions up-front for protective kit — with no guarantee it will arrive on time.
The Turkish supplier which left the RAF plane waiting in Istanbul has banked £300,000 after the Government paid a 30 per cent deposit when placing the 84-ton order last week.
A Government source said: “Suppliers have got us over a barrel because every country in the world is trying to buy PPE.”
Local Government Minister Simon Clarke was today only able to say the Turkish consignment was now expected in full in the “next few days”.
The firm is believed to still be finalising the order after initially releasing just one batch of 2,500 gowns for quality checks.
Back in the UK, pictures today showed piles of boxes containing more than 750,000 surgical masks given to Britain by China — but now being shipped to Europe from a Birmingham warehouse owned by pharmaceutical wholesaler Veenak International.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said 8,331 British firms had come forward with offers to supply the NHS, resulting in some “very large-scale” orders.
But many were rejected for the firms being too small or for not having a proven track record — or for being formed only a day or two before asking for a deal.
He added: “I can announce we are working with 159 potential UK manufacturers which are starting to come on-stream.”
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Staff at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals trust have been told to store used face masks in lunch boxes with drilled DIY air holes.
They were directed to a “laughable” three-minute video by a US medic showing how to make the single-use masks last longer.
Virgin Atlantic said that, since April 3, it has sent five flights to fetch 80 tons of PPE from overseas. Two further flights are due to arrive from Shanghai this week.
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