The Covid 19 Inquiry report lays bare the catastrophic impact of the four UK Governments’ lack of urgency and their collective complacency; they did far too little, far too late in the first few weeks of the pandemic and indeed beyond.

It reveals that this lack of urgency despite the tsunami of infections made a mandatory national lockdown inevitable, but even more appalling is that if the Government had introduced the first lockdown a week earlier, 23,000 people in England alone would not have died.

The BMA chair of council Dr Tom Dolphin, said:

“As a doctor I spent most of the pandemic caring for very sick patients, this report is a terrible indictment of the Government’s almost incomprehensible failings and incompetence.

“The Government told the country and NHS workers that the measures they were putting in place would stop the NHS becoming overwhelmed; the report says otherwise. It also talks of ‘Misleading assurances from the Department of Health and Social Care that the UK was well prepared for a pandemic’. On the frontline, doctors and nurses could see the tidal wave of sick patients coming our way as we scrambled to be ready, even while the then Prime Minister was talking about shaking hands with patients.

“We are told that Boris Johnson had several things coming across his desk in early 2020 and the pandemic wasn’t even in the top five; weeks later he was still telling people to go about their normal business. All the while the death toll was slowly rising, no restrictions were in place, and a lack of PPE put healthcare staff at unacceptable risk in their day-to-day work.

“What is clear from today’s report is that expert guidance about how quickly and easily the virus would be transmitted between people, even if they had no symptoms, was repeatedly ignored. A wilfully under-resourced test and trace capacity proves, as the report says, that ‘any opportunity to get on top of the pandemic had been lost'. (P4 Vol 1)

“The report reiterates that failures to manage the pandemic were down to government systems and processes as well as individuals. It also outlines several lessons learned and the BMA welcomes the emphasis on the need for future pandemic preparedness plans to have clear objectives and a set of detailed actions for those responding to the emerging crisis. Public health systems must also be restored and properly resourced to help avoid failure on this scale again.

“From very early in the pandemic, the BMA was highlighting that those from minority ethnic backgrounds were at higher risk of severe illness or death, which was obvious to me and my colleagues in the hospital when we saw who was in beds in Intensive Care. We welcome the recommendation of a framework to better protect these and other vulnerable members of the community in future pandemics.

“More widely, the experiences of doctors and other healthcare staff who were front and centre of the pandemic, including those still living with Long Covid, must not be ignored by those drafting strategies and plans to manage future pandemics.”

Notes to editors

The BMA is a professional association and trade union representing and negotiating on behalf of all doctors in the UK. A leading voice advocating for outstanding health care and a healthy population. An association providing members with excellent individual services and support throughout their lives.

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