Boris Johnson’s government is drifting into another Covid winter showing none of the urgency or seriousness it demands
Compare and contrast the following sets of statements, the first from Westminster. According to the health secretary, Sajid Javid: “We don’t believe that the pressures currently faced by the NHS are unsustainable.” On the contrary, the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, says the health service is on course for “gamechanging” investment of nearly £6bn. Meanwhile, the prime minister urges the public to get a booster jab against Covid. That, he says, is “our way through this winter”.
From the frontline, the NHS looks very different. The president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, Dr Katherine Henderson, says A&E departments are “already struggling to cope”, even before we reach the depths of our second Covid winter. The boss of NHS Wales, Dr Andrew Goodall, warns that the next few months will be among the hardest we have ever faced. The country’s most senior gynaecologist, Dr Edward Morris, worries that the coronavirus surge poses a direct threat to maternity wards, with operations cancelled, specialist staff redeployed and an already huge backlog continuing to build.
