The HSE is to establish new PPE hubs this winter as part of a two-year plan to ensure it has secure supplies and efficient deliveries of protective equipment for all healthcare settings.

The huge logistical challenge of ensuring the health service has adequate supplies of PPE means it is seeking to set up a new network capable of holding and transporting at least 50,000 pallets of protective equipment — about enough to cover the pitch at Croke Park five times.

The plans include using three warehouses to store 10,000 pallets of PPE in each. Two of these warehouses must have extra capacity to scale up by a minimum of 50pc on request. This means they must be capable of storing between 20,000 and 30,000 pallets if there is a surge in demand.

Contracts for the services are set to be signed in October, with operations commencing by February for two years.

Tender documents for the new services refer to last year’s PPE crisis and difficulties securing supplies on international markets.

The documents say ”the new contracts must deliver an efficient and secure service, reliable access to data, confidence for healthcare institutions, value for money for the HSE and economic viability for the service provider”.

Huge international demand drove a worldwide shortage of PPE last year, presenting the HSE with a difficult challenge to source and transport equipment.

A Government action plan for the Covid-19 crisis includes a requirement to maintain access to essential health products, equipment and services. This means the HSE must ensure it can secure long-term access to supplies of PPE.

In June last year the HSE acquired additional warehouse capacity for PPE and struck deals with 12 logistics providers for additional storage capacity as demand and supplies for masks, gowns, goggles and other protective equipment grew.

These sites operated outside of the HSE’s main distribution centres and supplied them before products were sent to healthcare settings.

“All hospitals, community-based healthcare settings including public and private nursing homes, the National Ambulance Service, general practices and multiple other critical healthcare providers depended on the availability of PPE supplied from the centralised request management system each day,” the documents add.

The new tenders are to provide for next-day nationwide delivery access to supplies, operating on a Monday-Friday basis from a central distribution hub capable of holding at least 10,000 pallets of equipment. They must maintain records of PPE stock and segregate any unapproved products within supplies.

This will be supplied by two additional warehouses. A second contract on offer will be awarded for these to a maximum of two providers with capacity for another 10,000 pallet each, or to one supplier with two separate warehouses.