Unions representing frontline NHS workers are urging the former health and social care secretary Matt Hancock to not use his appearance at the Covid Inquiry today and tomorrow (Thursday and Friday) to downplay the devastation wrought on the NHS, staff and patients during the pandemic.

Throughout his engagement with the Inquiry*, Mr Hancock has repeatedly said that the NHS was ‘never overwhelmed’ and that care was never rationed, despite evidence from healthcare staff who worked through the pandemic, and that vast swathes of NHS procedures were suspended in 2020.

Now the British Medical Association (BMA) and the Trades Union Congress (TUC) are urging Mr Hancock to put public interest before personal reputation and be transparent about the extent to which services were pushed beyond their limits as a result of poor planning and decision-making, and the impact that this had on staff and patients.

Honesty, they say, is the least their members – who provided vital and life-saving care throughout the pandemic – deserve.

BMA council chair Professor Philip Banfield said:

“To triumphantly, and repeatedly, say that the NHS was not overwhelmed and that this was a great success for himself and the Government is incredibly galling for our members who worked on the front lines during the pandemic – and to whom we owe a debt of gratitude for preventing health services from collapsing entirely.

“It shows a former health secretary who was completely detached to what was happening on the ground.

“Huge amounts of healthcare were rationed and patients who normally would have received treatment outside of a pandemic did not. Vast swathes of care were cancelled to make way for all but the most urgent Covid cases. This included many cancer treatments. This is the very definition of rationing.

“Meanwhile many people stayed away from hospitals and died at home instead.

“Our members – doctors who worked day and night to care for patients – frequently spoke out about being unable to provide the level of care they knew patients needed and they were trained to provide. Staffing ratios were cut and standards were reduced to deal with sheer demand. Doctors and our colleagues were overwhelmed, physically and emotionally - and still bear the mental scars of this moral injury today.

“This situation, where care was rationed and staff pushed themselves beyond their limits, was the direct result of a failure both in pandemic preparedness, and to resource the NHS and public health services over the previous decade, as well as the decisions made once Covid-19 arrived. Had different choices been made, the situation would not have been so dire.

“Mr Hancock needs to ditch soundbites and be transparent with the public. He owes this both to the public and to health professionals. Only by being honest about the past can we hope to make real changes for the future.”

Kate Bell, Assistant General Secretary of the TUC said:

"NHS staff put their lives on the line to get us through the pandemic.

“They very least they deserve from Matt Hancock is honesty and accountability.

“The former health secretary must come clean about the readiness and resilience of our health service when Covid struck.

“This inquiry has heard widespread evidence about how compromised the NHS was following years of underfunding.

“Mr Hancock must explain the political decisions he and other ministers took before and during the virus.

“He must put the needs the nation before that of his reputation. That’s how we can learn lessons and be ready for future pandemics."

ENDS

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.

*Hancock’s Module 2 witness statement:

• “We set out very early that a primary goal would be that the NHS should never be overwhelmed, as other health services around the world were. Despite the huge challenges, this was achieved. The impact of the pandemic was terrible, but could have been much worse.” (pg 5).
• “Had the NHS been overwhelmed, treatment would have had to be rationed, and choices made between who to treat and who to leave. We managed to avoid this awful outcome, by suppressing the virus, shielding the most vulnerable, expanding NHS capacity for example through the Nightingale Hospitals, and then through vaccination.” (pg 6)
• “One of the successes of policy during the pandemic was that the NHS was never overwhelmed.” (pg 45)

Hancock’s Module 2 oral evidence:

• “From my point of view as the Health Secretary, my absolute, totally primary task at this point was to ensure that nobody went without NHS provision, and that needed a very significant reduction from the reasonable worst-case scenario, and we only just got it low enough.” (pg 169)

Hancock’s Module 1 witness statement:

• “We took action to ensure that the NHS was never overwhelmed, including through the expansion of NHS services like the Nightingale hospitals, and the recruitment of more staff. While the NHS had not specifically prepared for this, its existing excellent capability and leadership meant it was able to step up.” (pg 12)