Source · Select Committees · Health and Social Care Committee
Recommendation 31
31
Accepted in Part
Paragraph: 234
The resulting requirement to abandon testing people in the community during the critical early period...
Conclusion
The resulting requirement to abandon testing people in the community during the critical early period of the pandemic cost many lives for a number of reasons including because: a) many asymptomatic carriers were not tested and therefore identified and asked to isolate; b) many older people were admitted to care homes either from the community or hospitals in ignorance of their covid status or that of staff working in care homes; c) low levels of testing meant that the UK lost visibility of where the disease was spreading, among which groups and how quickly. For a crucial period our only insight into the spread of covid was by counting people so sick that they had to be admitted to hospital; and (Paragraph 234.c)) d) the receipt of a positive test result would have been likely to improve compliance with an isolation request.
Government response summary AI-generated
The government partially accepts the committee's findings, agreeing on the vital need for operational competence to rapidly scale up test, trace, and isolate programmes in future emergencies. It highlights UKHSA's current surge capacity (700-800k PCR, 2.5m LFD daily) and commits to working with local authorities and maintaining local relationships to build resilient and scalable infrastructure.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Paragraph Reference:
234
Government Response
Accepted in Part
HM Government · verbatim extract
Accepted in Part
The government partially accepts this recommendation. The government agrees with the Committees that it is vital to have the operational competence to rapidly scale up test, trace and isolate programmes in future health emergencies. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has the capability and capacity to maintain central surge capacity for testing and contact tracing during a public health emergency. UKHSA has the capacity to conduct 700,000 PCR tests per day and scale this up to 800,000 PCR tests per day in 72 hours. UKHSA also has the capacity to deliver 2.5 million Lateral Flow Device (LFD) tests per day. The government is working with local authorities to ensure they have the knowledge, experience, and capability to support future contact tracing arrangements and to draw down expert advice to deploy for greatest public health benefit, including the capacity to respond to future public health emergencies. UKHSA will also maintain the well-established relationships with local tracing arrangements within all local authorities. The government will ensure that the UK has a resilient and scalable infrastructure in place to protect the public from new and existing threats to health, building on the legacy of the response to this pandemic as set out in the ‘Living with COVID-19’ strategy.
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