Privatize federal PPE stockpile: Med group

The Canadian Medical Association said a $300-million emergency stockpile of pandemic supplies should be privatized or run on a commercial basis by a Crown corporation.

Doctors blamed mismanagement of the stockpile on the Public Health Agency, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.

“The preference would be a Crown corporation,” said Ottawa Dr. Scott Laing, author of the commentary Canada’s National Emergency Stockpile System: Time for a New LongTerm Strategy. “Not-for-profit is included here as an alternative and less desirable option should a Crown corporation not be feasible.”

Auditors wrote: “In many ways, the Emergency Stockpile System is an insurance policy. No one ever wants to draw from that insurance policy because that would mean an undesirable event has happened and many people are affected.”