Following the closure of the public consultation on the Covid-19 Inquiry’s terms of reference, some organisations have made their responses to the Inquiry public. By way of example, in recent days, we have seen JUSTICE and the Association of Directors of Children’s Services Ltd (available here) publish their responses.
The NHS Confederation published their response (available here) last Tuesday. The Confederation’s response raised a number of potentially consequential points for the Inquiry, including:
- The Confederation’s support for the use of international comparators to assess the circumstances faced by the UK healthcare system as it entered the pandemic;
- The need to take a “proportionate approach” to requesting information from healthcare leaders in light of the ongoing pressures on the NHS;
- The need to address the entirety of the UK’s complex health and social care landscape, involving acute, primary, community, mental health and ambulance services and social care provided privately, by local authorities and by voluntary organisations; and
- The Confederation’s interest in the Inquiry assessing the reasons behind the decision to reform the public health structure during the pandemic, given the public health capacity nationally and locally at the time.
It remains to be seen whether any of these points, or the points made by other organisations and individuals, will bring about any changes to the Inquiry’s terms of reference, and how, indeed, the Inquiry will be conducted going forwards.
We will, of course, continue to keep you updated as new information becomes available. In the meantime, please do contact us if you would like to discuss your organisation’s specific situation.