UK Gov hid NHS pandemic failings report

[Eldorado]

"The NHS failed a test of its ability to withstand a major pandemic three years ago but the results were not made public, it has emerged.

"The Sunday Telegraph reports that a three-day cross-government practice run found Britain would be quickly overwhelmed by an outbreak and flagged a shortage of personal protective equipment, morgue capacity and critical care beds.

"The test - codenamed Exercise Sygnus - was carried out in October 2016 - but the paper reports that its findings were deemed too sensitive to be made public."

Full report at Politics Home: Link

Sunday Telegraph: Link

New Statesman: Link

"UK 'warned 3 years ago' pandemic would swamp NHS with ‘terrifying' results"

Daily Mirror: Link

 

[RoofGardener]

Most interesting. 

It appears that the lessons learnt in that Wargame are being applied to Covid-19, particular in terms of emergency legislation. (anybody notice how rapidly the Government drafted that legislation ? That's because it was prepared after the 2016 excercise.. it just needed taking off the shelf and dusting off). 

[Eldorado]

"The government’s roadmap for how to respond to a coronavirus-like pandemic has long been available online, and the three key documents – the 70-page “Influenza Pandemic Preparedness Strategy”, 78-page “Health and Social Care Influenza Pandemic Preparedness and Response” and 88-page “Pandemic Influenza Response Plan” – were published in 2011, 2012 and 2014 respectively.

"These plans were tested and failed, yet these documents were not rewritten or revised."

"They share a glaring shortcoming: not one of them mentions ventilators, which are now in such high demand that Matthew Hancock, the Health Secretary, told British manufacturers on 14 March, “If you produce a ventilator, we will buy it. No number [you produce] is too high.”

New Statesman: https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/health/2020/03/government-documents-show-no-planning-ventilators-event-pandemic

[stevewinn]

and yet the NHS hasn't been swamped. in fact look at your local health authority has it been swamped. No, mine neither.

Don't you just love the British Media. truth is the handling of this outbreak as been handled brilliantly. So because it hasn't been the disaster the media crave, and lets be honest the editors and journalist would have loved nothing more than millions dead and bodies pilling up and the NHS on its knees, the horrible b******* that they are. - just look at this crap their coming out with, one of them has dug up a report and like flies around poo their all in. a report from 3 years ago that has no relevance today. conclusion must therefore be the Govt acted on the report and we are seeing the result of that today.

A massive mole hill with these ventilators but the truth is we have enough. at current levels. - but you cannot store 30,000 ventilators on a just in case basis. its like someone said why haven't the govt got enough Covid-19 tests. well up until 3 months ago this virus never existed.

 

 

[Eldorado]

“When this is all over, the NHS England board should resign in their entirety.”

So wrote one National Health Service (NHS) health worker last weekend.

The scale of anger and frustration is unprecedented, and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is the cause.

The UK Government's Contain–Delay–Mitigate–Research strategy failed.

It failed, in part, because ministers didn't follow WHO's advice to “test, test, test” every suspected case.

They didn't isolate and quarantine. They didn't contact trace. These basic principles of public health and infectious disease control were ignored, for reasons that remain opaque.

The UK now has a new plan—Suppress–Shield–Treat–Palliate. But this plan, agreed far too late in the course of the outbreak, has left the NHS wholly unprepared for the surge of severely and critically ill patients that will soon come.

I asked NHS workers to contact me with their experiences. Their messages have been as distressing as they have been horrifying.

“It's terrifying for staff at the moment. Still no access to personal protective equipment [PPE] or testing.”

“Rigid command structures make decision making impossible.”

“There's been no guidelines, it's chaos.” “I don't feel safe. I don't feel protected.”

“We are literally making it up as we go along.” “It feels as if we are actively harming patients.”

“We need protection and prevention.” “Total carnage.” “NHS Trusts continue to fail miserably.”

“Humanitarian crisis.” “Forget lockdown—we are going into meltdown.” “When I was country director in many conflict zones, we had better preparedness.”

“The hospitals in London are overwhelmed.” “The public and media are not aware that today we no longer live in a city with a properly functioning western health-care system.”

“How will we protect our patients and staff…I am speechless. It is utterly unconscionable. How can we do this? It is criminal…NHS England was not prepared…We feel completely helpless.”

Full article at The Lancet: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30727-3/fulltext

COVID-19 and the NHS—“a national scandal”

[stevewinn]

56 minutes ago, RoofGardener said:

Most interesting. 

It appears that the lessons learnt in that Wargame are being applied to Covid-19, particular in terms of emergency legislation. (anybody notice how rapidly the Government drafted that legislation ? That's because it was prepared after the 2016 excercise.. it just needed taking off the shelf and dusting off). 

exactly. some just love bashing the govt and quoting the worst media journalism in our lifetime. Brexit, Trump, Elections, Covid-19. WOW. we've seen right through them all. the BBC is now fighting for its life as people tell it where to shove its "outlook" on British life.

[stevewinn]

@Eldorado Just to let you know Sky News have wheeled out oxygen thief Tony Blair, can we have some quotes from him. might give your posts some credibility.

[acute]

I've lost track of all the unfavorable reports that the Cameron/ May/ Johnson regime has buried.  Everything from Terrorism to Brexit.

[stevewinn]

1 hour ago, acute said:

I've lost track of all the unfavorable reports that the Cameron/ May/ Johnson regime has buried.  Everything from Terrorism to Brexit.

this is how reports are meant to work. Govts don't commission them to be full of praise and back slapping. its all about learning lessons and implementing findings.

 

[acute]

2 minutes ago, stevewinn said:

this is how reports are meant to work. Govts don't commission them to be full of praise and back slapping. its all about learning lessons and implementing findings.

My point is..... Favorable reports are published, but unflattering ones are not.

[stevewinn]

1 minute ago, acute said:

My point is..... Favorable reports are published, but unflattering ones are not.

What is the general public to do armed with this information? nothing. because its not for us to act. its for the govt to address it. and as we can see this report is 3 years old, and what the report highlights does not apply to today. and it maybe because the report was acted upon.

so, back in 2017 if you where made aware of this report it what use would it have been to you or me?

[acute]

13 minutes ago, stevewinn said:

so, back in 2017 if you where made aware of this report it what use would it have been to you or me?

Transparency, not secrecy!

Being shown a rose-tinted view only, is damaging to any democracy.

 

Edited March 29, 2020 by acute

[stevewinn]

1 minute ago, acute said:

Transparency!

and yet the reports can be found, published 2016 & 2017. It would seem the so called news papers have jumped the gun. pretending it was buried. - like flies around poo their all over the story. the narrative is out there now. journalism of today hey.