COVID inquiry: Matt Hancock says UK method to pandemic planning was ‘utterly unsuitable’

Jun 28, 2023 at 7:28 AM

Matt Hancock has criticised the UK’s method to planning for pandemics as “completely wrong”.

The former well being secretary instructed the coronavirus inquiry: “The perspective, the doctrine of the UK was to plan for the implications of a catastrophe.

“Can we buy enough body bags? Where are we going to bury the dead?

“And that was utterly unsuitable. Of course, it is vital to have that in case you fail to cease a pandemic, however central to pandemic planning must be – how do you cease the catastrophe from taking place within the first place? How do you suppress the virus?”

COVID inquiry latest: How Matt Hancock’s evidence unfolded

Mr Hancock mentioned he’s “profoundly sorry” for each dying attributable to COVID-19 and blamed “doctrine” for believing the UK had issues below management.

He mentioned doctrinal failures had “consequences” in areas equivalent to “stockpiles, testing, antivirals, contact tracing, and much more widely” when the pandemic struck in 2020.

He added that having pandemic plans specializing in flu was not the central flaw.

“For instance, large-scale testing did not exist and large-scale contact tracing did not exist because it was assumed that as soon as there was community transmission, it wouldn’t be possible to stop the spread, and therefore, what’s the point in contact tracing?” he mentioned.

“That was completely wrong.”

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Systems to cease subsequent pandemic ‘being dismantled as we communicate’

Mr Hancock additionally mentioned he was involved the methods to cease the subsequent pandemic are “being dismantled as we speak”.

Speaking in regards to the lack of correct preparedness, he mentioned: “I am profoundly sorry for the impact that it had, I’m profoundly sorry for each death that has occurred.”

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He added: “And all I can do is ensure that this inquiry gets to the bottom of it, and that for the future, we learn the right lessons, so that we stop a pandemic in its tracks much, much earlier.

“And that we have now the methods in place prepared to do this, as a result of I’m anxious that they are being dismantled as we communicate.”

Analysis

Matt Hancock’s line of defence, one he repeated again and again throughout a typically tetchy trade with Hugo Keith KC, was that he inherited a well being system that might not be capable of address a non-influenza pandemic.

The former well being secretary instructed the COVID inquiry he got here to the conclusion “doctrinal” points prevented the nation’s preparedness.

Instead the system was geared in direction of coping with “mass casualties” and the implications of a world well being emergency.

The inquiry’s lead counsel requested time and again why he, as secretary of state, did nothing to handle this apparent failure. There was no straight reply from Mr Hancock.

And this was a recurring theme all through his three hours on the witness stand.

Mr Hancock mentioned he noticed potential issues however couldn’t do something to vary “a flawed system”. This refusal to just accept any accountability was maybe most evident when addressing grownup social care.

The choice to maneuver untested aged sufferers from hospitals into care houses had catastrophic penalties. It is likely one of the single largest scandals of the pandemic. But Mr Hancock mentioned regardless of having the sector’s title in his job title he had no energy over grownup social care because it got here below the jurisdiction of native authorities.

Again, the identical defence: flawed methods that hampered his pandemic efforts.
The inquiry was warned proper originally of this morning’s session Mr Hancock’s proof can be restricted to the years earlier than the precise pandemic as this Module 1 offers solely with preparedness and resilience.

But Mr Hancock clearly needed everybody to know that regardless of taking up a system that was not prepared, amongst different issues, to scale-up mass testing and vaccine roll out, it was due to his private interventions that important positive factors had been made to fight the unfold of the virus. He mentioned he went towards WHO recommendation to impose the primary quarantines on worldwide travellers who may need been uncovered to the virus.

This is not going to sit effectively with the bereaved households who sat in the identical room listening to his proof. And Mr Hancock is aware of this. He mentioned he was “profoundly sorry for each death” however admitted he additionally understood “why this apology would be hard to take from someone like him”.

By taking no accountability and regularly blaming a system for which he was singularly accountable as well being secretary, Mr Hancock has carried out nothing to make his apologies to bereaved households any simpler to just accept.

UK system ‘geared in direction of easy methods to clear up after a catastrophe, not stop it’

Under questioning from Hugo Keith KC, lead counsel to the inquiry, Mr Hancock listed the problems the UK confronted with PPE (private protecting tools), exams, antivirals and vaccine preparedness.

The MP mentioned he was instructed the UK was one of many best-placed nations on the planet at responding to a pandemic – which “turned out to be wrong”.

He instructed the inquiry the system was “geared towards how to clear up after a disaster, not prevent it” and that “flaw, that failure, went back years and years and was embedded in the entire system response”.

Mr Hancock turned one of the crucial recognised politicians within the nation as he labored to steer the UK’s coronavirus response earlier than he was compelled to stop in June 2021 after footage emerged of him embracing his aide Gina Coladangelo whereas social distancing tips had been nonetheless in place.

Mr Hancock gave proof a day after the pinnacle of the UK’s Health Security Agency mentioned austerity measures left public health services “denuded”.