Week 2 of Covid-19 UK Public Inquiry Module 3

Our thanks to the Association of Anaesthetists communications team, who collated this update and shared with the Faculty and College as joint Core Participants in Module 3.
 

Last week marked the second week of our involvement as core participants with the Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCoA), and the Association of Anaesthetists, in giving evidence in Module 3 of the Covid-19 UK Public Inquiry.

Nursing took centre stage at the Inquiry oral evidence sessions with the Chief Nursing Officers for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all appearing.

Dame Ruth May, former Chief Nursing Officer for England used her evidence to focus on the experiences of nurses during the pandemic and covered issues including the availability of PPE, staff wellbeing and recruitment and retention. Dame Ruth said that resources, especially in intensive care, were stretched, negatively impacting patient care. She also noted widespread shortages of PPE, including plastic gowns, which left nurses feeling unsafe.

Similar issues were spoken about by Professor Jean White CBE, former Chief Nursing Officer for Wales and Fiona McQueen CBE, former Chief Nursing Officer for Scotland. Ms McQueen also discussed with the Inquiry the role she played in the development of clinical policy around the pandemic, especially around infection control for nurses and patients.

Professor Charlotte McArdle, former Chief Nursing Officer for Northern Ireland, spoke about the impact that workforce shortages – caused by both pre-existing vacancies and the pandemic – had on delivering care and how this left the Health Service stretched. She spoke about how nursing shortages  - especially in intensive care – were so serious they approached other countries around the UK and Ireland to ask for additional staff.  

Professor McArdle also spoke about the role played by the Critical Care Network Northern Ireland and the difficult decisions that had to be made relating to Intensive Care Units including banning visiting. Additional questions were asked by both Covid Bereaved Northern Ireland and those representing pregnancy and baby organisations about visiting guidance and how – in their view – it was inconsistently applied.

The Inquiry also heard from both the Trades Union Congress and the Scottish Trades Union Congress. The importance of ensuring workers were provided with clear and comprehensive information on work related risks on an ongoing basis was a clear theme throughout their evidence.

Dr Lisa Ritchie OBE, National Deputy Director of Infection Prevention and Control, NHS England, spoke to the Inquiry about how NHS England developed its public health guidance around the nature of the virus, including the coming to the point of communicating that the virus was spread through airborne transmission and how that impacted other public health measures.

The UK Health Security Agency was represented at the hearing by their medical adviser Professor Susan Hopkins. She spoke about how the UK worked with the World Health Organisation when developing guidance and how information around the way Covid was transmitted – and the protection needed for health workers – developed. Professor Hopkins also talked about the need to avoid ‘one and done’ policy making and to be able to react to new information and having an open mind. She said the supply chain for PPE wasn’t robust enough to deal with the extraordinary increase demand generated by the pandemic.

To finish the second week of hearings, the Inquiry heard from Dr Ben Warne, Dr Gee Yin Shin and Professor Dinah Gould, experts in Infection, Prevention and Control.
 

Looking ahead to week 3

Week 3 of the hearings sees Chief Medical Officer Professor Sir Chris Whitty, among the witnesses. We have been working with our legal team and have suggested some questions to the Inquiry that we’d like Sir Chris to be asked so we can find out more about how important decisions were made during the pandemic.

Consultant Anaesthetist Professor Kevin Fong, Former National Clinical Adviser in Emergency Preparedness Resilience and Response for NHS England, is also giving evidence in Week 3. In his written evidence, Professor Fong wrote powerfully about the realities of working on an intensive care unit and we look forward to hearing him describe this in more detail to the Inquiry next week.

Both of these evidence session are taking place on Thursday 26 September and you can watch this – and all the other sessions – live on the Inquiry’s YouTube channel.