Further to the letter by Prof Robert Dingwall saying that we had a pandemic plan but didn’t use it (8 November), we also had an infrastructure ready to cope with a pandemic at local level.
Public health officers (PHOs) are highly trained to deal with outbreaks of disease. It was pointed out very early in the pandemic by a PHO that Covid would only be effectively controlled at local level because of the multiple factors influencing spread. This turned out to be correct, especially where domestic and cultural practices prevailed in spite of advice and regulation.
Conservative governments are always reluctant to empower local government. The current one has so weakened and impoverished its local councils that they are actually going broke.
The weakening of local government has dire consequences for the public, not only in disease control but also in housing, education, planning – just about everything where local input is valuable. We can see that Conservative ministers have difficulty in listening to their own experienced civil service team, let alone the regions – or indeed Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. This has to change.
Liz Overstall
Dulas, Herefordshire
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