UK’s healthcare dangerously reliant on China for medical supplies

London : Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) is “dangerously reliant” on China for medical supplies, said a report published by British think tank Civitas after studying Chinese-manufactured goods in NHS supply chains.
This revelation was made in a report titled “China’s presence in NHS supply chains: Why we need to protect our health service from future threat.” This analysis by Robert Clark and Dr Richard Norrie finds 1 in 6 products contained on the Government’s “Disaster Relief List” are sourced from China.
In the last year the UK government has spent over £6.2 billion to keep the NHS going with Chinese manufactured medical supplies – a figure that has trebled in less than a year. The report calls for an emergency ‘NHS Security Act’ warning that “China could switch off medical supplies” in future foreign policy spats.
Robert Clark and Richard Norries uncovered the true extent of NHS reliance on China: “37 per cent of testing and diagnostic items used to detect dangerous viruses. A quarter (24 per cent) of all medical consumables such as oxygen, needles and syringes. A third (30 per cent) of PPE and protective items to keep our NHS workers safe. Almost all paper masks used by medics in hospitals come from China (90 per cent), more than half of all gloves (54 per cent) and almost 80 per cent of bandages. Bizarrely almost half (45 per cent) of bedside monitors now come from China, up from 0 in 2015 and 42 per cent of emergency trolleys and wheelchairs.” Also Read First signs of global outbreak of rare monkeypox disease in Europe As per the report, before the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK government sourced 6 per cent of vital medical supplies on the Disaster Relief List from China. By 2020 this figure had hit 17 per cent – almost treble the previous amount.