NHS 'only just coped' during Covid-19 pandemic, inquiry concludes

The NHS “coped, but only just” during the Covid-19 pandemic, the inquiry into the crisis has concluded.

Baroness Heather Hallett, chairwoman of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, said collapse was “narrowly avoided” thanks to the efforts of NHS staff.

Publishing her report into how the NHS coped across the four nations, Lady Hallett said in a statement: “I can summarise that impact as: we coped, but only just.

“The healthcare systems came close to collapse.

“Healthcare workers carried the burden of caring for the sick and dying in unprecedented numbers.

“It came at a huge cost to them, to their families, to their patients and to the loved ones of patients.

“It also came at a huge cost to the non-Covid patients who were not seen and treated.

“Collapse was only narrowly avoided thanks to the extraordinary efforts of all those working in healthcare across the UK.”

She went on: “However, despite those efforts, some patients did not get the level of care they would usually receive.

“Some people were not admitted to hospital when they should have been.

“Those taken to hospital in an ambulance often waited hours to be admitted, putting them and the ambulance crews at risk.

“Healthcare staff had to be redeployed to the front line, leaving other aspects of care at risk, staff-to-patient ratios were diluted, the supply of medical equipment was a significant concern, and some patients were not admitted to intensive care units despite their serious condition.

“The message to ‘Stay Home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives’ was designed, in part, to protect the UK’s healthcare systems from being overwhelmed.

“However, when the pandemic arrived, our healthcare systems were already overstretched and understaffed. This fragility had profound consequences when the numbers of people seeking treatment for Covid-19 started to increase dramatically.

“In order to ‘protect’ the healthcare systems, extraordinary steps were taken to free up bed capacity and to ensure there were sufficient numbers of healthcare workers.”

These included: discharging patients who were medically fit more quickly – including people to care homes; the suspension of non-urgent care, with millions of operations cancelled; pausing of some cancer screening programmes in some countries.

Lady Hallett added: “Desperate measures had to be taken to ensure people who needed treatment for Covid-19 could be cared for and that healthcare systems did not collapse entirely.”