Former UK health secretary Jeremy Hunt said failures while he was in office may have hampered Britain's Covid-19 pandemic response.
Mr Hunt, who led the Department of Health from 2012 to 2018, said he regretted not recruiting more frontline nurses and doctors during his time in charge of England’s National Health Service.
Speaking to the British Medical Journal, Mr Hunt said the staffing system needs urgent reform as he called on the government to publish figures on exact requirements each year.
"If you don't plan for the NHS workforce strategically, it ends up costing the taxpayer much more because the NHS then ends up recruiting locum doctors and agency nurses who are much more expensive," he told the BMJ.
Previous analysis by the Unison trade union showed there were 106,000 vacancies across NHS England, including over 44,000 vacancies in nursing. Labour’s Shadow health minster Jon Ashworth described the figures as “shocking” when they were released in December 2019, just as the coronavirus pandemic was taking hold in China.
An OECD report in 2019, found that the UK had just 2.8 doctors and 7.8 nurses per 1,000 people. The average across the OECD's 36 member countries was 3.5 doctors and 8.8 nurses.
Mr Hunt said the UK failed to learn the lessons from previous disease outbreaks in Asia, such as SARS and MERS, and should have focused on 'test and trace' earlier in the pandemic.
"We've really been on the back foot from the start on test and trace, and in some ways it dates back to the period when I was health secretary," he said. "It's why there is this stark difference in the effectiveness of our responses compared with countries in East Asia."
However, Mr Hunt said he believes the biggest mistakes made during the pandemic were related to the discharging of Covid patients into care homes.
According to the BMJ, Hunt supported calls for a public inquiry into the UK's handling of the pandemic, but not in the immediate future.
However, the implementation and such as vaccine development and distribution should also be examined by any future inquiry, he says.
"We have had probably the most effective vaccination programme anywhere in the world, in terms of the speed of approving and distributing vaccines [in the UK], but also ... this is the country that developed one of the vaccines that has been approved for use," he says. "The UK has punched well above its weight in terms of helping the world find a solution to this terrible nightmare."
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Key findings of Jenkins report
- Founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al Banna, "accepted the political utility of violence"
- Views of key Muslim Brotherhood ideologue, Sayyid Qutb, have “consistently been understood” as permitting “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” and “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
- Muslim Brotherhood at all levels has repeatedly defended Hamas attacks against Israel, including the use of suicide bombers and the killing of civilians.
- Laying out the report in the House of Commons, David Cameron told MPs: "The main findings of the review support the conclusion that membership of, association with, or influence by the Muslim Brotherhood should be considered as a possible indicator of extremism."
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The years Ramadan fell in May
The most expensive investment mistake you will ever make
When is the best time to start saving in a pension? The answer is simple – at the earliest possible moment. The first pound, euro, dollar or dirham you invest is the most valuable, as it has so much longer to grow in value. If you start in your twenties, it could be invested for 40 years or more, which means you have decades for compound interest to work its magic.
“You get growth upon growth upon growth, followed by more growth. The earlier you start the process, the more it will all roll up,” says Chris Davies, chartered financial planner at The Fry Group in Dubai.
This table shows how much you would have in your pension at age 65, depending on when you start and how much you pay in (it assumes your investments grow 7 per cent a year after charges and you have no other savings).
|
Age
|
$250 a month
|
$500 a month
|
$1,000 a month
|
|
25
|
$640,829
|
$1,281,657
|
$2,563,315
|
|
35
|
$303,219
|
$606,439
|
$1,212,877
|
|
45
|
$131,596
|
$263,191
|
$526,382
|
|
55
|
$44,351
|
$88,702
|
$177,403
|
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
What is the FNC?
The Federal National Council is one of five federal authorities established by the UAE constitution. It held its first session on December 2, 1972, a year to the day after Federation.
It has 40 members, eight of whom are women. The members represent the UAE population through each of the emirates. Abu Dhabi and Dubai have eight members each, Sharjah and Ras al Khaimah six, and Ajman, Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain have four.
They bring Emirati issues to the council for debate and put those concerns to ministers summoned for questioning.
The FNC’s main functions include passing, amending or rejecting federal draft laws, discussing international treaties and agreements, and offering recommendations on general subjects raised during sessions.
Federal draft laws must first pass through the FNC for recommendations when members can amend the laws to suit the needs of citizens. The draft laws are then forwarded to the Cabinet for consideration and approval.
Since 2006, half of the members have been elected by UAE citizens to serve four-year terms and the other half are appointed by the Ruler’s Courts of the seven emirates.
In the 2015 elections, 78 of the 252 candidates were women. Women also represented 48 per cent of all voters and 67 per cent of the voters were under the age of 40.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Yahya Al Ghassani's bio
Date of birth: April 18, 1998
Playing position: Winger
Clubs: 2015-2017 – Al Ahli Dubai; March-June 2018 – Paris FC; August – Al Wahda
Three ways to boost your credit score
Marwan Lutfi says the core fundamentals that drive better payment behaviour and can improve your credit score are:
1. Make sure you make your payments on time;
2. Limit the number of products you borrow on: the more loans and credit cards you have, the more it will affect your credit score;
3. Don't max out all your debts: how much you maximise those credit facilities will have an impact. If you have five credit cards and utilise 90 per cent of that credit, it will negatively affect your score.
