Delays and failures worsened the impact of the Covid pandemic on individuals and healthcare services, the second report from the official Covid-19 inquiry has found.
The report, which looked into core decision-making and political governance during the pandemic, revealed that implementing a national lockdown one week earlier could have saved 23,000 lives in England in the first wave of the virus.
It highlighted that there were ‘misleading assurances’ from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and a ‘widely held view’ that the UK was well prepared for a pandemic which led the Government to fail to appreciate the scale of the threat and the urgency that it demanded.
The report found that the impact on vulnerable people in particular had not been ‘adequately considered’ in pandemic planning.
It made several recommendations to better prepare for future pandemics, including improving consideration of those most at risk and broadening participation in the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies.
Responding to the report, Dr Jennifer Dixon DBE, chief executive of the Health Foundation, said it ‘laid bare how a series of delays, inaction and failures in the pandemic response worsened the impact for individuals, communities, and health and care services’.
‘The response to the pandemic was shaped and constrained by policy choices made years earlier. Health and care services were ill-prepared to respond to a pandemic in 2020: persistent underinvestment in capital infrastructure left the NHS woefully exposed to surges in capacity; underfunded and understaffed social care services struggled to manage rising demand, and health data systems, vital to managing infectious health threats, weren’t ready for the demands of a pandemic.
‘And some key wider determinants of health – such as incomes and local infrastructure – were deteriorating, affecting people’s health and increasing vulnerability to Covid-19.’
She added that in 2020, health in the UK was ‘notably poor’.
‘Life expectancy was stalling, preventable health risks were widespread, and significant health inequalities persisted. These inequalities contributed to Covid-19 disproportionately affecting some groups – such as disabled people, some ethnic minority communities, and care home residents,’ she said.
More than five years on from the first cases of Covid, Dr Dixon added that many of these ‘shortcomings’ had not yet been addressed in the health and care system.
‘If the UK is to be more resilient in the face of future national health emergencies, long-term policy action is needed across multiple fronts. As well as improving Whitehall’s readiness to manage crises, action is needed to strengthen the capacity and infrastructure of health and care services; fundamentally reform adult social care services; and implement a cross-government strategy to improve health and reduce inequalities,’ she said.
In an update to members over the weekend, BMA chair Dr Tom Dolphin said the report ‘gives us, as medical professionals, rightful recognition that we and our patients were failed’ by the Government.
‘Tragically, we were not only failed in the early months of 2020 but we continued to be failed throughout the pandemic as all four of the UK’s Governments failed to learn from the first wave,’ he added.
The BMA also welcomed the report’s emphasis on the need for future pandemic preparedness.
‘Public health systems must be restored and properly resourced to help avoid failure on this scale again,’ Dr Dolphin said.
‘Healthcare staff were treated as a resource, not as individuals, during the pandemic. Human beings working in extreme conditions were described by the Government as “elastic”. They were happy to stretch us to breaking point and in many cases beyond.
‘More than 50 doctors in the UK died caring for Covid patients, and that must never be forgotten or overlooked in the historical record of the Government’s response to the pandemic. Such a tragic loss of life must never be repeated,’ said Dr Dolphin.
It comes as more than 80% of trust leaders are concerned about winter. Systems have been preparing for winter pressures through increasing prevention and capacity, with concerns it could be busier than last year.
