Matt Hancock wished to resolve ‘who ought to stay and who ought to die’ if the NHS turned overwhelmed in the course of the pandemic, the Covid Inquiry heard in the present day.
Simon Stevens, ex-chief govt of the well being service, stated the feedback have been made throughout a February 2020 crunch assembly, the place it was set out that the UK might see 840,000 deaths within the first wave underneath an inexpensive worst-case situation.
In his witness assertion, he revealed how the previous Well being Secretary ‘took the place’ that he — slightly than medics or the general public — ‘ought to in the end resolve’ which sufferers ought to be cared for.
Whereas noting that this example ‘by no means crystalised’ throughout Covid, he stated he would ‘discourage the thought’ that any particular person ought to ever make this resolution.
Matt Hancock ‘wished to play God throughout Covid’: Ex-NHS chief Sir Simon Stevens reveals former Well being Secretary pushed to ‘resolve who ought to stay and who ought to die’ if hospitals turned overwhelmed
Lord Simon Stevens stated feedback have been made throughout a February 2020 assembly
He stated Matt Hancock believed that he ought to resolve ‘who ought to die’
Matt Hancock wished to resolve ‘who ought to stay and who ought to die’ if the NHS turned overwhelmed in the course of the pandemic, the Covid Inquiry heard in the present day.
Simon Stevens, ex-chief govt of the well being service, stated the feedback have been made throughout a February 2020 crunch assembly, the place it was set out that the UK might see 840,000 deaths within the first wave underneath an inexpensive worst-case situation.
In his witness assertion, he revealed how the previous Well being Secretary ‘took the place’ that he — slightly than medics or the general public — ‘ought to in the end resolve’ which sufferers ought to be cared for.
Whereas noting that this example ‘by no means crystalised’ throughout Covid, he stated he would ‘discourage the thought’ that any particular person ought to ever make this resolution.
Led by the Cupboard Workplace, the aim was to set out how the Authorities would reply to a ‘cheap worst case situation’ through which there are 1.6million new circumstances per week — of which 1.25 per cent are deadly — and 860,000 deaths are forecast within the coming months.
Inquiry counsel Andrew O’Connor stated the train ‘provoked a dialogue’ about who ought to be answerable for making selections about prioritising and allocating stretched NHS sources on this state of affairs.
In a witness assertion to the inquiry, Lord Stevens wrote: ‘My sense on the time was that it [the planning exercise] helpfully sensitised a wider vary of Authorities departments [beyond the health sector] to the kind of pressures the UK would possibly expertise.
‘It did lead to — to my thoughts a minimum of — an unresolved however elementary moral debate a couple of situation through which a rising variety of Covid sufferers overwhelmed the power of hospitals to take care of them and different non-Covid sufferers.
‘The Secretary of State for Well being and Social Care took the place that on this state of affairs he — slightly than, say the medical career or the general public — ought to in the end resolve who ought to stay and who ought to die.
‘Happily this horrible dilemma by no means crystalised.’
Mr O’Connor famous that Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, a former Well being Secretary, ‘took a unique view’ throughout Train Cygnus — a 2016 Authorities simulation of a flu outbreak.
Mr Hunt advised the Covid inquiry in June that, at the moment of the train, there was a protocol requiring the Well being Secretary to ‘flick a swap’ and resolve who ought to be cared for.
However he stated ministers shouldn’t be requested to ‘play God’ and deprive individuals of a hospital mattress, so ordered that the coverage be modified, concluding that it was ‘inappropriate’ for this resolution to be taken ‘away from the entrance line’.
Mr O’Connor advised Lord Stevens that Mr Hancock ‘took a really completely different view’ and requested whether or not his stance was ‘an applicable line to take’ or ‘fascinating’.
Learn Extra: Matt Hancock ‘wished to play God throughout Covid’
