Safety recommendation
It is recommended that the Department of Health and Social Care reviews and identifies the mechanisms which enabled regional and local organisations to adapt and respond with agility during the pandemic. This should inform the development of a strategic approach to national leadership models at times of crisis and under normal conditions.
Response:
Thank you for sharing the report with the Department of Health and Social Care. The Department accepts the recommendation made in the report and will work with partners to develop a transparent process to support and implement guidance across the healthcare system to minimise the risk of nosocomial transmission of COVID-19.
The recommendation will give us the opportunity to build on existing plans and activities, for example, the publication of the national Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) guidance available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/wuhan-novel-coronavirus-infection-prevention-and-control
This process will benefit from enhanced, proactive professional stakeholder engagement to support both content and ensure the avoidance of concerns raised following publication. Where there is an absence of evidence of a structured engagement process, we will support consensus and allow guidance development or implementation challenges to be raised proactively.
Actions:
We thank HSIB for this recommendation, which highlights the critical importance of effective response models at local, regional, and national levels. We are committed to continually testing and improving our response policies and command, control, and coordination mechanisms.
One way we do this is through exercises like Exercise Cygnus, which we ran in 2016 to assess our level of preparedness to respond to a pandemic influenza pandemic. We are also committed to working with our partners to learn the lessons from the COVID-19 response, particularly where there have been examples of rapid and effective adaptation as highlighted by the HSIB report.
The Government has always been clear that there will be opportunities to look back, analyse and reflect on all aspects of COVID-19. As the Prime Minister has said, this will include an independent inquiry at the appropriate time. For now the Government is focused entirely on responding to the pandemic and saving lives.
There are several pieces of work which will help inform lessons learned in the coming months. These include the National Audit Office’s studies into how well prepared the government was for the COVID-19 pandemic.
This will cover an assessment of the operation of the early months of the pandemic response and is due to report in Spring 2021. There are also ongoing changes to the structure of the health and care system, most notably the establishment of the National Institute for Health Protection (NIHP).
We expect that these activities will produce valuable insights into response mechanisms and leadership models which will supplement the HSIB findings and help us to continue to strengthen our response models at local, regional, and national levels.
Response received on 25 January 2021.