JEFFERSON CITY — Three years after Missouri officials scrambled to stock hospitals and state health care facilities with masks, gowns and other protective gear in the face of the growing COVID-19 pandemic, the state is now selling those same items at a discount rate.
In a posting on the state’s surplus property website, the Missouri Department of Mental Health is auctioning off 50,000 protective masks, 18,000 hospital gowns, 11,000 shoe covers and more than 4,000 goggles and face shields.
Missouri is looking to auction off surplus masks acquired during the COVID-19 pandemic, including nearly 50,000 Honeywell N95 masks.
Department spokeswoman Debra Walker said the items, located at Fulton State Hospital, are “extra supply.”
“The facility still has 50,000 N95 masks on hand as well as 5,000 goggles,” Walker said Thursday.
The fire sale comes a year after a similar sale of 400,000 face masks was withdrawn by officials at the Missouri Veterans Commission, who called the effort to jettison the safety equipment “premature” after state agencies and health care officials had worked hard to stock up on the items as the coronavirus began spreading in 2020.
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In March 2020, as the pandemic began to take hold, hospitals in the St. Louis area began rationing protective equipment for health care workers to avoid running out of supplies as the deadly respiratory disease intensified across the region.
Nurses and other front-line medical workers at BJC HealthCare, SSM Health, Mercy and a VA medical center said leaders asked some staff to reuse masks and placed limits on sanitation materials.
Gov. Mike Parson also was pressing to collect more items for a stockpile.
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson removes his mask before speaking at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Oct. 20, 2020.
That year he redirected $28.3 million in state funds to buy more protective equipment for health care workers and first responders, with about $18 million of that amount used to purchase 4.2 million N95 masks, 61,000 safety goggles, 95,000 surgical masks, more than 7,400 surgical gowns and 335,000 bottles of hand sanitizer, according to the Department of Public Safety.
Now, those same types of items are being offered for sale for pennies on the dollar.
According to the state’s surplus property website, which includes a potpourri of items no longer wanted by the state, 18,000 hospital gowns were going for $9.
The 50,000 masks are going for $102, while 2,000 protective goggles are sitting at a bid of $110. The auction closes June 29.
Post-pandemic planning, however, hasn’t stopped.
After being forced to rent warehouse space for personal protective equipment during the initial months of the disease, Parson asked lawmakers this year to budget $26 million to design and build a new 150,000-square-foot warehouse in Jefferson City.
The governor is expected to sign the spending plan by June 30.
Walker said the future needs of the Department of Mental Health can be met with existing supplies.
“DMH also has PPE supplies at facilities in Higginsville and St. Louis to be able to more quickly provide additional PPE across the state to other facilities,” she said.