The UK’s citizens were “failed” by their governments’ processes, planning and policy ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic, a public inquiry has concluded.
There were more than 235,000 deaths involving COVID-19 in the UK up to the end of 2023 and a report published today says some of the “financial and human cost may have been avoided” had the country been better prepared for the deadly outbreak in 2020.
The 83,000-word document details “several significant flaws”, while the inquiry chair Baroness Heather Hallett is calling for “radical reform” as she makes 10 recommendations, including a major overhaul of how the UK government prepares for civil emergencies.
The inquiry also pointed to “significant flaws” including preparing for “the wrong pandemic”.
“Never again can a disease be allowed to lead to so many deaths and so much suffering,” she writes in an introduction to the first report published by the UK COVID-19 Inquiry.
Key recommendations include a radical simplification of systems, holding a UK-wide pandemic response exercise at least every three years and the creation of a single, independent statutory body responsible for the preparedness and response of the whole system.
The first of nine modules, which received 103,000 documents, 213 witness statements and heard from 68 witnesses in June and July last year, examined the state of the UK’s structures and procedures in place to prepare and respond to a pandemic.
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The report states the UK “lacked resilience” in 2020 and was “ill prepared for dealing with a catastrophic emergency, let alone the COVID-19 pandemic that actually struck”.
A slowdown in health improvement, widening health inequalities and high pre-existing levels of long-term illnesses such as heart disease and diabetes, made the country “more vulnerable”, while public services were “running close to, if not beyond capacity,” it says.
The inquiry heard evidence on the potential impact of austerity measures and, while recognising the pressure on politicians to make tough decisions over the allocation of resources, the report says: “Proper preparation for a pandemic costs money.”
“The massive financial, economic and human cost” is proof money spent is “vital” and “will be vastly outweighed by the cost of not doing so,” it adds.
“Significant flaws” highlighted include preparing for “the wrong pandemic”, with the focus on a flu pandemic “inadequate” for the global pandemic that struck, the inquiry found.
The report also says the institutions and structures responsible for emergency planning were “labyrinthine in their complexity”, while the UK’s sole pandemic strategy from 2011 was “outdated and lacked adaptability” and was “virtually abandoned” on its first encounter with the pandemic.
“The inquiry has no hesitation in concluding that the processes, planning and policy of the civil contingency structures within the UK government and devolved administrations and civil services failed their citizens,” it says.
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