Read on Twitter
1/ My personal thoughts on plans to get rid of @PHE_uk and ‘replace’ it with a ‘pandemic response agency’…as if that’s all that we need from a national public health body! https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/08/15/hancock-axes-failing-public-health-england/
2/ PHE employs 5,500 people doing a huge range of public health functions across the country – make no mistake, it will take years for the system to recovery from this decision. Abolishing it now is massive disruption at the worst possible time.
3/ Is this blame shifting? In short – it looks like it is. PHE is far from perfect (which organisation is?) but, as it often does, govt is restructuring its bureaucracy instead of tackling thorny issues. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/01/experts-say-ministers-are-blaming-public-health-england-over-covid-19-errors
4/ PHE has never had the independence it needs to tackle some major challenges- e.g. on health inequality, it hasn’t been able to question (or in my view, meaningfully influence) govt policies which hit the poorest hardest BUT...
5/ Lack of independence cuts both ways. It’s disingenuous (a kind word) to blame PHE for failings in a pandemic response which has been led by ministers.
6/ Key errors in the pandemic response were strategic (eg not locking down sooner). I happen to agree with @cjsnowdon analysis suggesting govt followed scientific advice which was (with wonderful hindsight) faulty - but PHE was only a bit-player in that. https://thecritic.co.uk/the-lockdowns-founding-myth/
7/ What comes next?
Clearly there are plans for PHE’s role in the pandemic response to move to a new agency but nothing apparent on everything else PHE does. As @harryrutter points out, lots of policy and analysis needs to be done at national level! https://twitter.com/harryrutter/status/1295036520039055365
Clearly there are plans for PHE’s role in the pandemic response to move to a new agency but nothing apparent on everything else PHE does. As @harryrutter points out, lots of policy and analysis needs to be done at national level! https://twitter.com/harryrutter/status/1295036520039055365
8/ The local public health system has been decimated by >20% cuts (in real terms per cap) to the public health grant since 2015. https://www.health.org.uk/news-and-comment/news/response-to-public-health-grant
9/ If this decision results in a hollowing out of the national infrastructure as well, it will be a huge loss and a perverse response to a crisis which should be teaching us the value of investing in the nation’s health stock.
10/ Finally, I'm thinking of all the PHE staff, many working flat out on the front line of the pandemic response, who've read about this in the papers and are wondering what it means for them - a tough day for them.
Also, its worth reading @ADMBriggs thread on this if you haven't already https://twitter.com/ADMBriggs/status/1294931195004948481?s=19
