Free PPE for GOS contractors in England via online portal

Updated 9 October 2020

PPE is available to all GOS contractors for free via a new online portal which went live on 17 August 2020. Contractors are invited to register with the PPE portal, but to receive an invitation, contractors will require an NHS mail address that is registered with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).

If your practice does not have an NHS email account

If your practice does not already have an NHS mail account you can use this form to register for an account and that account will automatically be registered with the DHSC.

If you, or your practice, already has an NHS email account

If you, or your practice, already has an NHS mail account, you can use the same form to register your NHS mail address for access to the portal. To do this, under section six of the form specify if your NHS mail account is a personal account, or a practice account and indicate that you are happy for it to be linked to a specific contractor. 

Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT)

NHS mail accounts require completion of the Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT) which replaced the previous Information Governance Toolkit (IGT). To make it easier to obtain an NHS mail account, this requirement has been deferred until 31 March. However, all contractors will need to register for the DSPT on receipt of their NHS email account. You can register via an online form.

Please note you will need your ODS code to register for the DSPT.

Ordering free PPE via the online portal

On receipt of an NHS mail account via the online form, DHSC will contact practices directly to invite them to register for the online portal to access free supplies of PPE. DHSC have been provided with the estimated usage of PPE for every contractor based on historic volumes of GOS activity, so ordering volumes will be based on those quantities.

Current order limits have increased but will be kept under review to reflect the latest public health guidance. Current order limits for optometrists can be viewed here.

Orders will be delivered by Royal Mail within four days.

Some orders will require more than one box and may be received as multiple deliveries.

If there are any queries about the PPE portal, members can contact the NHS customer service team on 0800 876 6802.