2 days ago
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The NHS successful England came wrong “six oregon 7 hours” of moving retired of gowns and different protective instrumentality during the Covid pandemic, Matt Hancock has said.
The erstwhile wellness caput was giving grounds for the 3rd clip astatine the Covid inquiry, astir the interaction connected healthcare systems.
He stated determination was ne'er a “national shortage” of PPE for healthcare workers but “in immoderate places, they did tally retired - and it was awful”.
Asked astir reports that immoderate nurses had to deterioration binbags aboriginal successful the Covid crisis, helium said the NHS needed to “learn the lessons of what went wrong” and enactment successful spot “better stockpiles” for the future.
Mr Hancock - who was wellness caput astatine the commencement of the pandemic successful 2020 - volition beryllium giving grounds implicit 2 days, arsenic the enquiry investigates the interaction connected the NHS and healthcare crossed each 4 UK nations.
On Thursday, the inquiry’s chair, Baroness Hallett, had to occasionally interrupt the proceeding to archer bereaved families successful the nationalist assemblage - immoderate of whom were intelligibly highly affectional - to little photographs of their deceased relatives.
Earlier, the erstwhile MP faced robust questioning astir the compression connected facilities galore hospitals had endured astatine the highest of the 2 astir important waves of Covid.
In March 2020, Mr Hancock said helium was “petrified” recently announced lockdown rules mightiness not beryllium stringent capable to debar a repetition of scenes successful bluish Italy, wherever immoderate Covid patients had struggled to entree immoderate care.
But portion immoderate hospitals successful England came nether “extraordinary pressure”, the wider NHS strategy was ne'er overwhelmed, helium added.
Mr Hancock was past asked astir the lawsuit of Suzie Sullivan, who died of Covid successful 2020.
Medical notes written astatine the clip stated Suzie was not suitable for a transportation to intensive attraction owed to a pre-existing bosom information and having Down's syndrome. Her father, John, told an earlier league of the enquiry she was “left to die” due to the fact that of her disability.
Mr Hancock accepted that a furniture successful intensive attraction could not beryllium recovered for everyone who needed it astatine the tallness of the pandemic.
“Of people determination was tremendous pressure, and of course, it has consequences,” helium said.
He said, astatine times, unit ratios had to beryllium stretched, meaning specializer captious attraction nurses had to look aft six patients alternatively than springiness the one-to-one attraction they would successful mean times.
But helium added: “What we successfully avoided, was an wide rationing - to say, 'people, according to these characteristics, aren’t going to beryllium cared for'.”
“That’s what would person happened if we had fto the microorganism get much retired of control.
“Did radical get arsenic bully attraction arsenic they would person done successful mean times? Of people not. There was a pandemic,” helium told the inquiry.
Asked astir the imposed visiting restrictions, which meant immoderate relatives could not beryllium with dying household members successful their last hours, and elsewhere, expectant fathers could not be ante-natal scans, helium said “on balance” helium believed the authorities got the rules “about right”.
“Where I deliberation we got it wrong, for instance, was the mode that the ceremonial guidance was applied connected the crushed - it wasn’t arsenic had been intended.”
Other witnesses, including the archetypal curate of Wales, Eluned Morgan, and Scotland’s erstwhile wellness curate Jeane Freeman, person suggested immoderate of those restrictions went excessively far.
Mr Hancock besides defended the government’s 'Stay Home, Save Lives, Protect the NHS' messaging, saying that it was “literally true” that “if we didn’t halt the dispersed of the virus, the NHS would beryllium overwhelmed”.
Giving grounds recently, England’s main aesculapian officer, Prof Sir Chris Whitty, said, with hindsight, the authorities did not suceed successful letting the nationalist cognize the NHS was inactive unfastened for non-Covid patients during the pandemic.
Mr Hancock besides alluded to however helium had had to “ruffle immoderate feathers” to support the NHS from governmental interference.
He said helium felt it was his occupation to “shield” the wellness work from “people being hard successful Number 10”.
Some of the interference by governmental appointees successful Number 10 caused “incredible difficulties” erstwhile it came to rolling retired Covid testing, helium added.
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