Be prepared for future pandemics

Last month's column concluded with the commonly understood assertion that there is nothing more certain in life than death and taxes. It is, perhaps, therefore, not unreasonable to expect that given the unavoidability and inevitability (of death, at least), the UK, as a well-developed, relatively rich and stable Western economy, with a historically established healthcare system, should be more assured of our resources, reserves, resilience and facility to respond to the health and social care needs of its citizens.

Nevertheless, the recent testimony of witnesses recounting their experiences at the continuing COVID-19 inquiry has highlighted how woefully and inadequately prepared the government was to deal with that particular health emergency. It is cause for a pause for reflection on future practice. In particularly emotionally elegiac evidence, consultant anaesthetist Kevin Fong, NHS England's former national clinical adviser in emergency preparedness, talked about how ‘overwhelmed’ services, such as intensive therapy unit, were and how traumatising the experience was for nurses, with them feeling they were ‘just throwing bodies away’ for the want of suitable equipment and time to maintain dignified and decorous end-of-life care practices. The inquiry has heard comparable evidence from the nursing care home and community care sectors.