The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh was pleased to have the chance to submit written evidence to the House of Lords Public Services Committee’s inquiry into the impact of Covid-19 and welcomes its findings. The report found that the NHS had some successes, upscaling acute care capacity with the Nightingale Hospitals and increased use of digital technology. However, it warns that without fundamental reform these benefits could be lost.
The report found that public services – including the NHS – lacked resilience and were ill-prepared for a stress test of the scale of the pandemic. The report makes three calls which were also found in the evidence the RCSEd submitted. Firstly, the report found that ethnic minority communities were hard hit by the pandemic and need to be better supported. This chimes with the work the College has been doing internally on equalities and diversity. Secondly, the report finds that health inequalities should be a fundamental priority of the government. The RCSEd called for the findings in the 2010 Marmot review into health inequalities need to be implemented. Thirdly, fitting in with the College’s evidence on PPE and the NHS’s IT infrastructure, the report found that the NHS and other public services were ill-prepared for the pandemic due to a lack of resilience. This has been caused by ten years of cuts and underfunding, and the NHS requires the resources to address this fundamental weakness.
The report, which also includes a link to the College’s evidence submission, is available here.