Covid report ‘not gone far enough’ in setting out how to improve UK inequalities

Lady Hallett “has not gone far enough” in setting out how the UK can improve inequalities that were laid bare during the pandemic, bereaved families have said.

Relatives gathered at the Covid Memorial Wall, in Westminster, along with representatives from the British Medical Association, Covid-19 Families for Justice and the TUC – where they talked about how citizens had been let down by the response to the pandemic.

Music therapist Rivka Gottlieb, 52, whose father Michael – a semi-retired golf club worker, died in the first wave of the pandemic in April 2020 aged 73, described it as “a damning report”.

Ms Gottlieb (pictured centre with her father), of east Finchley, north London, added: “It definitely brings it back and anytime we go through anything to do with the inquiry, you are reliving things. It was very stark and chilling to see in black and white what we already know.

“What is in the report is very dry but for us, who lived through it, it is extremely painful.

“It is a damning report. I think the inquiry is getting to the bottom of what went wrong but it is still missing things. Our frustration is that we are not being called as witnesses and being given the kind of participation that we would like as bereaved people.”

She felt that lawyers for the bereaved are not being allowed to question witnesses sufficiently and suggested “there are gaps and there are bound to be gaps if that is the way the inquiry is proceeding”.

She said: “The recommendations do not go far enough. I hoped they would go much further and I would hope that the Government would speak to us about what we think needs to happen and to help fill in the details. Some of the recommendations are also very vague and general.”

Former airline worker Larry Byrne, 64, was not surprised on hearing the public inquiry’s findings that the UK Government and the Civil Service “failed” the public due to “significant flaws” in preparing for the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said the Government was not prepared and “there were rules that were put into place and our government broke the rules, they partied”.

His father, also called Larry, got Covid while he was in a care home and died in April 2020 aged 89.

Just months earlier, in February, Mr Byrne’s brother Patrick, 60, had died from motor neurone disease.

Mr Byrne said: “They (the Government) had more or less been forewarned about this. Other countries went into lockdown a lot quicker than this country. They allowed things like Cheltenham Races and special events to carry on in this country.

“They did not act quick enough. Other countries did and potentially they could have save a lot more lives.

“It is also about the way they dealt with things – the right arm did not know what the left arm was doing. The Government was not clear on a lot of things.”

Earlier, speaking outside the inquiry, a spokeswoman for the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK group said: “While the inquiry has diagnosed much of what undermined our response, Lady Hallett has not gone far enough in setting out how we can challenge, address and improve inequalities and capacity of public services as opposed to just understanding the effects of these failures.”

BMA Council chairman Professor Philip Banfield, who is a working doctor, had said: “I want to acknowledge how tough it’s been for families exposed to the brutal realities of the pandemic to hear just how ill-prepared the UK was in dealing with such a catastrophic emergency.

“This report confirms that the state failed its people and that lives could have been saved through better pandemic planning, preparedness and different decisions as Covid-19 hit our shores.”

Repeated exercises that were supposed to keep people safe led to a false sense of security in central government and key recommendations were ignored, he said.

Professor Banfield said: “The pandemic did not affect the population equally and future planning must take inequalities into account.”

Greater investment in public health services is needed and he said “we want the new Government to act on the findings of the report and not just the recommendations” as “the UK remains unprepared to respond to another pandemic”.

Emergency doctor Saleyha Ashan said she was not surprised by the report’s findings.

The system and other frontline staff had “nothing left in the tank” by the time Covid-19 hit, and that “we could tell from the work we were doing that we were not prepared”, she said.

Dr Ashan said the voices of the bereaved and healthcare workers needed to be heard.

Nathan Oswin, of the TUC, said the report tells “the story of the decade” including under-investment in public services and fragmentation in public health – and it highlights “poor short-term decision-making that has failed the people of this country”.

He said: “Those of lost loved ones, those frontline workers who risked every single day to go into work and protect others were failed. It is as that in this report.

He went on to say the challenge now is to ensure that lessons are learned and mistakes are never repeated.

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