Table 2.
Strategies for managing supply of personal protective (PPE) and medical equipment.
| Strategies | Country examples* | Implementation examples |
|---|---|---|
| Increase supply of PPE and medical equipment | ||
| Importing from other countries | Most countries** | 37 EU and EEA countries signed the EC's Joint Procurement Agreement; import from China |
| Ramping up internal production | Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, Norway, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Uzbekistan | Private companies started to change their production to ensure domestic production of PPE (Sweden) |
| Change market factors | ||
| Prohibiting or limiting exports and/or sales | Austria (planned), Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Finland, Norway, Poland (respirators and cardio-monitors), Romania, Russian Federation, Turkey, England, Ukraine | Export of quinine-based medicines, PPE and disinfectants was prohibited (Bulgaria) |
| Capping prices and/or reducing VAT | Belgium, England, France, Italy, Spain | Maximum price for surgical masque at EUR 0.50 (Italy) |
| Simplifying procedures for market authorization | Belgium, England, Italy, Finland, Romania, Spain, Sweden | Authorisation of commercialisation of PPE without CE marking (Spain), development of an Alternative Test Protocol (Belgium) |
| Relaxing guidelines for use or re-use of PPE | Belgium, England, Germany, Netherlands | FFP2 masks are only used when treatment may cause a lot of aerosols (the Netherlands) |
| Seizing PPE from private and public institutions | Italy, Spain | Medical and surgical aids and other movable property from privates and public bodies, if deemed necessary. |
| Coordinate sourcing and/or distribution*** | ||
| Centralised coordination | Cyprus, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland (distribution to five university hospitals), Germany (procurement), Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Montenegro, Netherlands, Sweden, Spain, Switzerland (procurement) | Publicly owned company acted on behalf of health authorities to ensure imports and distribution (Greece) |
| Decentralised coordination | Belgium (municipalities), Finland (districts), France (employer), England (distribution) | Procurement and distribution of masks managed by municipalities (Belgium) |
| Introducing monitoring systems for PPE and medical equipment | Denmark, England, Estonia, France, Greece, Norway, Ukraine | National system for reporting, allocation and distribution of PPE (Norway) |
Notes: * does not imply an exhaustive list of countries adopting these measures, but represents some examples taken from the HSRM; **Indicates more than 30 countries in Europe adopted this measure; PPE – personal protective equipment, VAT – value added tax; ***Some countries had a mix of centralised and decentralised coordination (e.g., national procurement but local distribution), which also changed over time; planned - measure planned to be implemented in case of shortage of capacities; PPE personal protective equipment, VAT value added tax; table indicates strategy taken in first wave.
Source: HSRM.