May 25, 2020

expert reaction to Dominic Cummings’ statements

Dominic Cummings, the Prime Minister’s chief adviser, made a statement at downing street today regarding his movement between London and Durham during lockdown. 

Prof Jackie Cassell, Deputy Dean of the Brighton and Sussex Medical School, said:

“It was very disappointing that not a single journalist asked Dominic Cummings about the burden on the NHS of people going to second homes, for whatever reason.  During lockdown, and for many months ahead, we all need to protect the NHS from people becoming ill with Covid19 in second homes.  This could easily overwhelm the NHS in less densely populated areas.  This is the reason for the very clear rule – which still stands – that people should not move out of major population centres to their second homes.  We haven’t run out of ITU beds, but that could still happen.

“The NHS has ramped up hospital and ITU capacity across the country to ensure enough acute beds in a Covid19 surge for its local resident population.  It simply cannot do this for visitors as well.   London has lots of ITU and hospital beds as a major population centre.  Its residents should not be decamping to places where they might need – and in this case did need – to use another region’s hospitals and health care facilities.  This is an important reason why Cummings should have stayed put, and he like all senior government advisers will have been well aware of this.  

“Hospitals have transformed the way they work, redeploying thousands of doctors from their specialities to manage the influx of Covid19-related illness. Now they are looking to transform to new ways of working that will allow the many operations and treatments delayed by Covid19 to begin again. 

“We will need to protect the NHS for a long time.  I would not be surprised to see targeted travel restrictions within the UK over the summer to protect NHS facilities outside the major cities.”

Dr Michael Head, Senior Research Fellow in Global Health at the University of Southampton, said:

“The statement from Cummings really only reinforced his clear disregard for public health guidance, with regards these movement of hundreds of miles by COVID-infected individuals. It seems curious that apparently no one offered to help Cummings and his family during their time of illness in London, bearing in mind he is close to many of the most powerful and wealthy politicians in the country, including the prime minister.

“There are also issues of taking up emergency healthcare resource in an area of the country where you are not resident – this makes a mockery of healthcare planning where ideal number of intensive care beds are based on population numbers in the local area. It is also very poor public health practice to put your family in a car and go for a 60 mile drive in order to test your eyesight.

“There are still COVID-19 deaths in care homes and hospitals. The pandemic can only finish if there is strong leadership from the government and compliance from the general public. Going forward, we have real potential issues around trust in the government from the general public. However, it is of huge importance important that the public do try and stay on board with the expert-led advice, to support themselves, their families and the general population.”

All our previous output on this subject can be seen at this weblink:

www.sciencemediacentre.org/tag/covid-19

Declared interests

None received.