A new 400-page report into the preparedness of the UK’s healthcare system for a global pandemic will be published today, examining if it helped or hindered the country’s COVID response.
The harrowing testimony from 97 witnesses who gave evidence to the UK COVID-19 public inquiry, from September to November last year, was used to decide how the country coped and adapted to an evolving public health emergency.
The report will also examine the standard of patient care for COVID and non-COVID patients.
A number of health leaders broke down as they gave powerful testimony to the pandemic probe.
They included a senior medic who was in tears as he described scenes “from hell” on intensive care wards, with staff running out of body bags and sick patients “raining from the sky”.
Professor Kevin Fong, former national clinical adviser in emergency preparedness, resilience and response at NHS England, told the probe that the scale of death in intensive care units was “truly astounding”, adding how one hospital he visited was close to collapse.
Former chief nursing officer for England, Dame Ruth May, described how the NHS in England went into the pandemic with 40,000 fewer nurses than it needed.
The inquiry heard that in critical care, highly skilled nurses usually care for patients on a one-to-one basis, but during the crisis a decision was made to increase the number of patients cared for by each nurse as patient numbers swelled – with nurses in these units caring for as many as six patients at once.
The report has looked at the impact of patient visiting restrictions on friends and family, the effectiveness of infection control, and PPE availability.
Former health secretary Matt Hancock told the inquiry that England’s hospitals were within “hours” of running out of some items of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the early months of the pandemic.
Mr Hancock also said he “reluctantly” approved of the decision to pause non-urgent planned care during the pandemic.
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The government prioritised hospital capacity for COVID-19 and emergency patients, and so paused elective (non-urgent) treatment in spring 2020.
This led to growing waiting lists and meant thousands of people who needed care for non-COVID reasons had to wait or could not access treatment.
The former MP also defended the Stay At Home, Protect The NHS, Save Lives messaging implemented during the pandemic.
But England’s chief medical officer, Professor Sir Chris Whitty, said officials “didn’t get it across well enough” that people should continue to go to hospital for serious illnesses other than COVID.
However, he said the UK faced an “absolutely catastrophic situation” as it headed towards the first COVID lockdown and, without such a measure, there were very serious concerns about how the NHS would cope.
Critics of lockdowns have pointed to the numbers of people who died from non-COVID conditions which may have been treatable, but where the person stayed at home or could not access normal NHS care.
Inquiry chairwoman Baroness Heather Hallett examined all aspects of the NHS during the crisis.
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In a statement, COVID-19 Bereaved Families for Justice said the current meningitis outbreak “underlines why restoring resilience and capacity to our health system is a matter of national urgency”.
“It shouldn’t take the tragic death of young people to force public health back on to the political agenda,” it added.
“The NHS is less prepared now than it was in 2020 for a major health crisis. This must be a wake-up call to the government.”
The group said the COVID inquiry report on Thursday “must not pull its punches”.
“Years of austerity left the NHS dangerously exposed before COVID ever arrived, without the capacity, resilience or headroom needed to cope with a major shock,” it said.
“Many of our loved ones died in horrific conditions because ministers failed to strengthen the health service when they had the chance.
“We are less prepared now than we were in 2020, and unless that changes, more lives will be put at risk when the next crisis comes.”
Sky News understands Baroness Hallett will call on the government to implement the findings from this Module 3, as well as earlier Modules 1 and 2, to be implemented fully and promptly in order to serve as a blueprint for how the UK can be better prepared for the next pandemic.
