The Covid Inquiry report on core decision-making and political governance gives a damning account of the complacency of the UK’s four governments in their initial response to the pandemic – and beyond.
Despite clear signs of a rapidly spreading global pandemic, which NHS staff watched with horror as the world locked down, the UK death toll was rising with no restrictions in place.
Contact tracing was abandoned in early March 2020, and large gatherings continued to take place up until the end of that same month.
The Covid Inquiry report reveals that if the government had introduced the first lockdown a week earlier, 23,000 people in England alone would not have died.
DAUK’s Protect the Frontline campaign, collaborating with Led by Donkeys called for adequate PPE for NHS staff.
PPE supply
Thousands of doctors signed up to our NHSPPE app giving daily reports on the PPE supply they had access to. We also raised our concerns that staff were being discouraged from speaking up about PPE in the press.
Dr Ellen Welch, DAUK co-chair and author of How the NHS coped with Covid-19, said: “Frontline staff were left woefully unprotected by a lack of PPE, and DAUK provided a voice for doctors to speak up about this when many felt gagged by their trusts.
“We all saw colleagues don homemade PPE to go to care for patients and two months later nearly 300 healthcare workers had died.
“DAUK welcomes the recommendations of the inquiry and hopes lessons have been learned around the key theme of preparedness.
“Future pandemics will come and it would be an insult to those who lost their lives, or continue to live with long Covid, if we did not.”
Covid Airborne Transmission Alliance
DAUK is a member of the Covid-19 Airborne Transmission Alliance (CATA), which gave testimony as part of the inquiry about how UK healthcare officials systemically denied overwhelming scientific evidence that Covid-19 was airborne. Watch CATA chair Dr Barry Jones giving evidence here.
Dr David Nicholl, consultant neurologist and DAUK committee member, said: “I was thinking how much of a media hullabaloo there was, rightly, over the Iraq War when there were 179 UK deaths, yet how quickly there has been a concerted action to move along from the pandemic by the media.
“There were more than 200,000 deaths from Covid, including hundreds of healthcare workers. Some like Boris Johnson clearly don’t want to learn.”
Dr Welch added: “As another winter takes hold, NHS staff approach it this year without the protection of the covid vaccine.
Covid Inquiry report
“The Covid-19 Inquiry report should serve as a reminder to those in power of the damage wielded by this virus, and urge them to start implementing measures now to protect staff and patients, such as vaccinations, masks, ventilation to name a simple few.
“Politicians may want to forgot this saga, but NHS staff never will.”
Dr Alison George, a GP and member of the DAUK GP committee, said: “NHS staff have been totally excluded from the vaccination programme and the cost to purchase one privately ranges from £95 to £99.
“There is no clear explanation for such an irresponsible and short-sighted decision.
Long Covid
“Added to the physical effects on individual staff of acute and long Covid, it is likely to lead to increased staff sickness, cancellation of procedures and treatments and higher rates of nosocomial Covid.
“It is also worth considering the impact of the message this sends to staff and the public about the need for any mitigations against Covid.”
DAUK committee members are volunteers and campaign about issues facing doctors in their own time. Please support our work by joining DAUK or donating to our GoFundMe.
