London: The UK’s state-funded National Health Service (NHS) “came close to collapse” during the Covid-19 pandemic, a public inquiry concluded Thursday.
A government slogan urging people to stay at home to “save lives” also “sent the message that healthcare was closed”, according to the inquiry report.
The “Stay home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives” messaging — created by government officials and health leaders — led to some people avoiding accident and emergency departments even for life-threatening conditions such as heart attacks, it found.
Others steered clear of seeking medical attention for fear of burdening the health system, leading to delayed diagnoses that in some cases meant their conditions became inoperable.
The 387-page report by retired senior judge and inquiry chair Heather Hallett lays out 10 recommendations to prevent healthcare systems being overwhelmed in any future pandemic.
“We coped, but only just,” Hallett said. “Collapse was only narrowly avoided thanks to the extraordinary efforts of all those working in healthcare across the UK.”
The pandemic had wide-ranging consequences including patients “not always getting the care they needed”, she added.
Waiting times for ambulances grew, even for the most critical cases, and the non-emergency 111 healthcare phone line was unable to cope with demand.
“Visiting restrictions meant that many patients died without the comfort of being surrounded by their loved ones,” the report said.
“And vulnerable patients such as those with dementia or a learning disability and children in mental health inpatient units, as well as women accessing maternity services were left without vital support,” it added.
Hallett’s recommendations include greater capacity in emergency care and improvements to the body handling infection prevention.
The UK suffered one of the worst Covid-19 death tolls in Europe.
The toll of deaths with Covid-19 on the death certificate stood at just over 227,000 as of June 2023 when the inquiry hearings started, according to government figures.
Previous phases have looked at the country’s preparedness and political decision making.
UK public inquiries are government-funded but have an independent chair. They investigate matters of public concern, establishing facts about what happened, why and what lessons can be learned.
The next phase — the fourth of 11 — will focus on the development of the vaccines and their rollout.
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