I attended the launch of the Covid-19 inquiry report by Lady Hallett and I left the viewing room with my emotions all over the place (UK in ‘worse state’ to deal with pandemic than before Covid, say experts, 19 July). I remembered my dead colleague, dead patients and a dead friend. But I also remembered our first informal meeting in the NHS, when the possibility of a new pandemic was briefly and nonchalantly discussed. That was in October 1999. Labour was in power and our focus was on innovation and modernisation across the NHS. I was a passionate enthusiast for all this new policy – a cheerful foot soldier for change. Sound familiar?
My contribution as a senior NHS change leader between 2002 and 2005 was to help build a new learning system or infrastructure that included a health observatory capable of horizon scanning for any threats to the NHS and, by default, to the public. This innovation was one arm of the new NHS University, which was designed to provide an integrated learning system across the health sector. The two areas of concern were pandemics and climate change.
