Covid inquiry returns to examine pandemic’s impact on NHS workers and patients

The Covid Inquiry is to resume and enter a new phase today where it will examine the impact of the pandemic on NHS workers, patients and the delivery of healthcare.

The first public hearings of part three of the UK’s Covid-19 Inquiry will be held on Monday, with leaders from the Health and Safety Executive and Unison expected to give evidence this week.

This part of the inquiry, headed by Baroness Heather Hallett, is looking at the governmental and societal response to Covid-19 by assessing the impact of the pandemic on how NHS services were delivered.

It comes after phase two of the probe resulted in a scathing report into the UK’s pandemic readiness which found the Government had failed to prepare for the ‘entirely forseeable’ event. 

At least 235,000 Brits are thought to have been killed by the virus since the pandemic began, with further fatalities caused by the disruption to the NHS and regular screening for health issues like cancer.

The first public hearings of part three of the UK’s Covid-19 Inquiry will be held on Monday (Pictured: The national Covid memorial wall, London)

Phase three will examine how managers led the pandemic response, the role of primary care and GPs, NHS backlogs, and how the vaccine programme was integrated. 

The diagnosis of long Covid and the support offered to those affected will also be examined.

Evidence this week will come from Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice; Dr Barry Jones, chair of the Covid-19 Airborne Transmission Alliance; Richard Brunt, director of engagement and policy division at the Health and Safety Executive; and Sara Gorton, head of health at Unison.

Nicola Brook, solicitor at Broudie Jackson Canter, which represents more than 7,000 families from the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK group, said: ‘This module of the inquiry is one of the most important in understanding the true horrors of the pandemic.

‘It will reveal some of the most shocking details, distressing stories and outrageous scandals that took place.

‘Despite the narrative pedalled by those in charge that the UK coped, the sad fact is people died unnecessarily.

‘Groups like the disabled and the elderly were written off because it was considered that their lives were not worth saving.’

Baroness Hallett’s first report from the probe found the pandemic was ‘foreseeable’ and government had ‘failed its citizens’ by not preparing

At least 235,000 people died due to Covid-19, according to estimates (Pictured: Covid testing)

In July, the inquiry’s first report into preparedness for a pandemic found the UK Government and the civil service ‘failed’ the public due to ‘significant flaws’.

It said there was a ‘damaging absence of focus’ on the measures and infrastructure that would be needed to deal with a fast-spreading disease, even though a coronavirus outbreak at pandemic scale ‘was foreseeable’.

Chair Baroness Heather Hallett said lessons must be learned because, unless changes are made, the next pandemic will ‘bring with it immense suffering and huge financial cost, and the most vulnerable in society will suffer the most’.

She added: ‘There were serious errors on the part of the state and serious flaws in our civil emergency systems. This cannot be allowed to happen again.’

The report also found a ‘damaging absence of focus’ on measures that would be needed to deal with a fast-spreading disease was to blame for ‘the tragedy of each individual death’.

The 240-page document also called for ‘radical reform’ in order to safeguard against future pandemics and warned: ‘It is not a question of ‘if’ one will strike but ‘when’.’

In a 2,000 word foreword, Baroness Hallett concluded that ‘never again can a disease be allowed to lead to so many deaths and so much suffering’. 

The inquiry said it had ‘no hesitation’ in concluding that the ‘processes, planning and policy of the civil contingencies structures within the UK government and devolved administrations and civil services failed their citizens’. 

The public hearings for phase three are expected to run for 10 weeks.