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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Anna Bawden and agency

Delaying routine care was least bad of ‘awful options’, Matt Hancock tells Covid inquiry

Former health secretary Matt Hancock
Former health secretary Matt Hancock giving evidence to the Covid-19 inquiry. He insisted the NHS was not overwhelmed. Photograph: UK Covid-19 Inquiry/PA Media

Cancelling non-urgent treatment of patients during the Covid crisis was the “least bad” of a series of “awful options”, Matt Hancock has said.

In his third and at times combative appearance at the Covid-19 inquiry, in which he repeatedly interrupted the inquiry counsel, Jacqueline Carey KC, the former health secretary defended his decision to allow the NHS to postpone routine treatment and care from April 2020.

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