NHS chiefs have said the Government should consider bringing back lockdown rules - including masks in public and a ban on meeting indoors - in a bid to control the spiraling Covid infection rate. Very high rates of Covid-19 infections are having a “major impact” on the health service, which is facing pressures as they would in a “bad winter” well into spring, health leaders have said.
The NHS Confederation called on the Government to reconsider its Living with Covid plan as it said that ministers risk “abandoning” the NHS if they do not take action. The membership body, which represents healthcare organisations across Wales, England and Northern Ireland, said Government messaging to the public could “mislead the public and discourage them to take steps to reduce transmission, contributing to the very high rates of Covid-19”.
It called for “mitigating actions” to help the NHS which is grappling with 20,000 Covid patients, high rates of staff absences, full hospitals and severe demands on emergency care. “The brutal reality for staff and patients is that this Easter in the NHS is as bad as any winter,” said Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation.
