Clipper Logistics is to manage a new supply chain to deliver personal protective equipment (PPE) to NHS trusts and community healthcare organisations, the Health Service Journal, has reported.

The supply channel began delivering pallets to trusts yesterday, according to an NHS document seen by the publication.

Clipper is a major and long-standing retail logistics and supply chain firm, which serves retailers selling fashion, tobacco and alcohol, among other goods. The news comes after the NHS reported a severe shortage of equipment for front line staff in various trusts across the UK.

Meanwhile, Labour MP James Murray, a member of the Commons health and social care select committee, has written to the health secretary Matt Hancock to ask him to review the government’s strategy for supplying PPE to care homes urgently.

Murray’s response comes amid reports from care home industry leaders that orders of supplies of PPE intended to protect staff and residents in social care settings are being requisitioned by the NHS for use in hospitals.

At a meeting of the committee last Thursday, Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, told MPs that wholesalers were prioritising supplying the NHS over care homes.