Thread by @DRTomlinsonEP

Day 1 @covidinquiryuk

@TheBMA

'This statement seeks to highlight four key areas
that the BMA considers should be explored...to identify what went wrong...

/1

covid19.public-inquiry.uk/documents/tran…

1. 'Failure to prepare adequately for a range of pandemic threats'

'One consequence of the predominant focus on an influenza-style pandemic was that the UK's response to Covid-19 failed to properly consider the potential for aerosol transmission of the virus'

#COVIDisAirborne

Result?

'...insufficient stocks of appropriate PPE & inadequate
infection prevention & control in healthcare settings.

As one doctor in Scotland said:

"The PPE guidance was based not on safety, but
rather the lack of preparedness."

@FreshAirNHS @EvonneTCurran @JimBethell

'Shockingly, this is the case even now. The current
IPC guidance continues to put staff & patients at risk
by erroneously stating that fluid-resistant surgical
masks are adequate protection for healthcare workers
carrying out routine care for Covid positive patients...

...rather than specifying respirators such as filtering
facepiece respirators, often referred to as FFP2 & FFP3 masks, which are recommended by international
guidance & by the BMA...'

'The limitations of surgical masks were well known
prior to the pandemic, highlighted, for example, in
a research report by the Health and Safety Executive in
2008'

JVT, Horby, Whitty, Vallance, Powis, Harries, Curran: they all knew

& they all just washed their hands of us

Countless doctors are concerned about the failure to provide adequate protection: GP in NI complained that there was:

"... no attempt by the health & social care board to follow the science on airborne transmission & the need for staff to have FFP3 masks & HEPA air filters."

Govs could & should have been better prepared for the foreseeable risks to Drs & HCWs

This would have reduced the serious harm that affected so many of the BMA's members & the wider healthcare workforce, many of whom are today still suffering with LC acquired in their workplace

2. 'failures to implement the recommendations from pandemic planning exercises

Insufficient consideration of wider pandemic threats
Inadequate learning
Failure to act on PPE lessons learned

🚨This @TheBMA evidence is stunning, because it's the truth - THANK YOU

'The fact that in Mar 2020 @NHSEngland assured the Health & Social Care Committee that there was sufficient supply of PPE nationally, despite stocks containing less than two weeks' worth of most equipment, suggests serious failures of planning & preparation'

⬆️...& also a lie

Lest we forget @YouAreLobbyLud

'Frontline staff often had to go without PPE, buy their own, use home-made, donated or expired items, & re-use single use items. Staff also had to use items that were out of date, with multiple expiry stickers visibly layered on top of each other'

Continues...

'Many felt pressured to work without adequate protection, with consequences for their mental & physical health'

What does this teach us about the NHS leadership?

What REALLY motivates these people?

#CovidIsAirborne

Cont'd

'In a BMA survey as part of its Covid-19 review, 81% of respondents reported not feeling fully protected during the first wave of the pandemic, & feeling worried or being fearful to speak out about the lack of PPE'

Afraid, & afraid to speak up: sound familiar @helenh49?

Cont'd:

'That was more commonly reported by doctors from an ethnic minority background and those with a disability or long-term health condition.'

Cont'd:

Commenting on the wholly inadequate supply of PPE, a GP in Northern Ireland said:

"We were sent six pairs of gloves and six aprons in an envelope approximately three weeks after the start of lockdown."

🤔 adequate PPE stocks @NHSEnglandNMD; really?

'These failures of planning and preparation also led to PPE being procured from organisations with no experience of manufacturing PPE, resulting in PPE being produced and delivered that was unsuitable for use at huge public expense.'

@LedbyDonkey

'Little consideration was given within pandemic planning policies & strategies to detect & contain the spread of the disease, but rather the emphasis was on how to respond in a situation where there was already significant mortality & morbidity'

=>Fatal bias from UK 'scientists'

'The failure to adequately prepare for the testing capacity that was needed left healthcare workers and their patients at increased risk of exposure to Covid-19, particularly at the beginning of the pandemic'

As one junior doctor in England told the BMA:

...cont'd...

'"There was a delay in allowing testing of all patients with possible Covid symptoms. I was seeing patients in A&E and being told I could not test them because they had not travelled to relevant countries...

...When testing was later allowed some of these patients, unsurprisingly, ended up testing positive. I saw these patients with no PPE due to hospital rules around when PPE was allowed to be worn."'

=> 'Rules' based on toxic culture, bad science & PPE availability

3. 'Public health system was not in a position to scale up its activity to respond to the pandemic due to a decade or more of reduced funding, resource cuts & reorganisations that caused fragmentation in the system.'

4. 'The fourth & final key area to highlight is that the UK entered the pandemic with poor population health, widening health inequalities, & health services that had been consistently underfunded & understaffed'

The NHS was NOT 'well prepared' at all, Mr Hancock

More lies

@TheBMA coming in to land:

'These failures to ensure a resilient, well-resourced health & care system were brutally exposed by the pandemic, & the systems are now in an even worse state, with more people waiting for care than ever...

...a staggering 7.4 million patients in England alone, unsafe bed occupancy levels, acute staffing shortages, neglected infrastructure, & deteriorating equipment'

@doctor_oxford

'This, in the BMA's view, is the elephant in the room when considering issues of planning, preparation & resilience, & unless it is acknowledged and addressed, the same mistakes are destined to be repeated'

[mic drop]

Bravo @TheBMA & team: a job very well done

THANK YOU 🙏