Matt Hancock, the disgraced former health secretary, was booed by furious bereaved families at the Covid-19 Inquiry following claims the NHS was not overwhelmed during the pandemic
A woman who lost her dad to Covid during the pandemic after he was advised to take paracetamol slammed Matt Hancock’s testimony today.
The disgraced former health secretary was booed by furious bereaved families at the Covid-19 Inquiry following claims the NHS was not overwhelmed during the pandemic.
He received a hostile reception upon arrival before he caused anger among families in the public gallery who each held up photos of relatives who died.
During often testy exchanges Mr Hancock was presented with evidence that people died because of a lack of NHS staff and some patients were denied lifesaving treatment.
His insistence that “people got treated” and “we did not have a collapse in the system” sparked an angry response from families.
Rivka Gottlieb, whose father Michael Gottlieb died after catching Covid, said: “Dad came down with Covid the day before the first lockdown and we were really scared because of what was happening in Italy but we couldn’t get medical attention. We called NHS 111 but it was not fit for purpose. They read from a script and told him to take paracetamol and stay home. The NHS was overwhelmed because people couldn’t get the care they needed. I found his testimony shocking. Why did they leave it so late to increase NHS capacity?”
Elaine Seaton, 77, lost her husband Harvey, said: “We couldn’t get a doctor of NHS 111. They were overwhelmed. I think it’s absolutely disgusting.”
Larry Byrne, whose father and namesake Larry Byrne died aged 89 after catching Covid, said: “I don’t know what planet he was on if he doesn’t think the NHS was overwhelmed.”
Mr Hancock told the hearing that blanket Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) orders during the pandemic were “appalling and unacceptable”.
Sioux Vosper’s father John Leigh died from Covid after attending hospital for a urine infection and having a DNR placed on him. Sioux, 59, said: “He makes my blood boil. He keeps saying the NHS ‘didn’t get overwhelmed’. It didn’t get overwhelmed because many elderly or disabled people didn’t make it into ICUs.”
Mandy Phillips, who booed at Matt Hancock as he walked into Dorland House in London, said she believes he “should never have been health secretary”.
The 63-year-old, from Thames Ditton in Surrey, said “we didn’t learn enough from the first (Coronavirus) wave”, adding: “I think it is important that we just sit there, and in my case, I will just sit at the back and glare at him basically.”
Mr Hancock resigned as health secretary in 2021 after admitting breaching social distancing guidance after photos showed him in a romantic embrace with colleague Gina Coladangelo.
The former I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here contestant agreed under questioning that the NHS entered the pandemic with low intensive care staff and bed capacity and many were already almost full.
He had provided a written statement arguing that at no point was intensive care capacity exceeded, but that when an individual ICU was full then patients were transferred to a different hospital.
Mr Hancock was shown a clip of earlier evidence of a senior medic breaking down in tears while recalling his experience in intensive care units (ICUs) which were running out of body bags.
Calling a break in proceedings, Chair Baroness Heather Hallett said: “I think some people in the public gallery here are experiencing some distress. Could I encourage them to seek any support if they need it.”
Families left bereaved by Covid-19 plan to stage a stunt outside at lunchtime laying out a red carpet to protest at “politicians are using the inquiry to defend their legacies, while bereaved families are being excluded from giving evidence”.
James Telfer, spokesman for Covid 19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK, whose mum died of Covid 19, said: ‘In the wake of catastrophic failures contributing to the UK having the 2nd worst death toll in Western Europe, Matt Hancock remains more concerned about defending his legacy than helping the UK to make sure that the hellish scenes which played out in our overwhelmed hospitals during the pandemic are never, ever repeated.
“In the face of indisputable evidence that our loved ones were refused care because of their age or disabilities, that blanket DNR’s were placed on patients regardless of their physical capacity, and that the NHS was understaffed and under-resourced to the degree that it could not keep the public safe, Matt Hancock defends his claim that the NHS was never overwhelmed.
“His duty was to make sure that people were safe, not to spin perception of the NHS.”
Mr Hancock had defended the ‘Stay Home, Save Lives, Protect the NHS’ messaging implemented during the pandemic. Asked by inquiry counsel Jacqueline Carey if he thought the messaging “struck the right balance” Mr Hancock replied: “Yes.”
“We needed to ensure that the public across the whole of the UK understood the importance of staying at home whenever possible in order to stop the spread of the virus,” he added.
“The ‘Protect the NHS’ element was important for two reasons. The first is that it was a motivating factor to encourage people to follow that advice because belief in the NHS and support for the NHS is one of the strongest things that holds this country together.
“And the second reason is because it was literally true that if we didn’t stop the spread of the virus, then the NHS would be overwhelmed, by which, I mean, the system as a whole would have been unable to cope with the demand on it, as we’d seen in other countries like Italy.”
