The leading public health body set up by Boris Johnson to fight the pandemic is in turmoil, with plans to cut jobs by up to 40% and halt routine Covid tests in hospitals and care homes to save money. money.
Whitehall sources told the Guardian that the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), headed by Dr Jenny Harris, is in disarray, with morale at the bottom and fears it is not funded to cope with the resurgence of the pandemic. Public health experts have warned that “worrying” layoffs could cost lives.
More than 800 employees are expected to be lost by vital healthcare teams across the country in the coming months, a reduction of 40% of the current 2,000 staff members. An insider said people had been notified two weeks in advance that their contracts were being terminated early and that the way they were being treated was similar to the “recent P&O situation”.
Some other teams across the organization have also been told they need to cut full-time staff by 40%.
After the Treasury cut its budget to deal with Covid, UKHSA is now proposing to health ministers to suspend regular asymptomatic testing in hospitals and nursing homes from May to save money before a potential winter jump.
Sources in the organization said funding for asymptomatic high-risk testing was only enough to cover six months of the year, and senior officials said it would be better to save for later in the year.
The proposals come after the government significantly reduced the provision of free tests to the general public as part of its Living with Covid plan, with the previous year’s budget of £ 15 billion reduced by around 90%. At the time, the government said asymptomatic tests would continue in high-risk conditions while the prevalence was still high.
Public health experts have warned that layoffs in testing and healthcare are “irresponsible”, short-sighted and risk reviving Covid, especially among health and social workers.
Covid’s prevalence in England dropped significantly to 1 in 17 people in the week ending April 16, compared with 1 in 14 in the previous week. However, officials said they still consider this level to be high.
Prof. Maggie Ray, President of the Faculty of Public Health, which represents 4,000 public health professionals in the UK, said: “If the Covid-19 pandemic teaches us one thing, it is important to have a properly funded public health system that is capable of to prepare and respond to threats to our health.
“The government is constantly underfunding the public health services that are there to protect and improve health for all. Not only is it not irresponsible to strengthen the public health system, but to continue to reduce it so deeply is irresponsible and threatens the health of everyone in society, especially the most vulnerable. “
Dr Jyotsna Vohra, Director of Policy and Public Affairs at the Royal Society for Public Health, said: “It is deeply disturbing to hear about the redundancies of the UKHSA workforce when we are still in a pandemic. Strong, consistent messages and health activities are vital at this time.
“It is irresponsible to remove free asymptomatic tests from health and social workers. With high exposure to the virus and our adults and the most vulnerable members of our population, the health and social workforce must have the greatest possible confidence in their infectious status. Asymptomatic testing provides this.
“At a time when the rate of infection is still high, it feels like we’re saving pennies on the price of a pound, or worse, lives,” Vohra said.
Labor has also criticized proposals to remove more tests for NHS staff. Shadow Health Secretary Wes Street said: “While the NHS is in a constant state of crisis and patients are waiting longer than ever for care, the government cannot seriously consider taking away even more support.
“Patients need to know that they will be safe when they go to hospitals and nursing homes. These proposals run the risk of leaving the NHS unprotected and unprepared. “
UKHSA officials told the Guardian that job cuts and cuts in funding for public health measures have left a “exhausted” and demoralized part of the organisation’s permanent staff. One source said many other employees were in a state of “growing anger and despair at the organization’s management and approach to its staff and strategy.”
Many are also angry about the crash, which affected some 300 UKHSA employees, who were told they were wrongly receiving 3,700 British pounds, weighed in London, and that this would be eliminated. The organization is currently in discussions with its unions about the episode.
Job cuts are a mixture of termination of fixed-term contracts and redeployment or notification of civil servants. “Many, many people are jumping off the ship,” said a third source, with some senior executives at the level of directors saying in pairs that only one or none of them would be able to keep their jobs.
UKHSA was launched with great fame by Matt Hancock, former Minister of Health, in 2021, bringing together the former Public Health Officer in England, his successor, the National Institutes of Health, and the NHS Test and Trace. Johnson had ordered the new body after losing faith in dealing with public health in England with the pandemic during the first national blockade.
Asked about the plan to further reduce testing, UKHSA cited the Living with Covid plan and said all decisions would be made by ministers. A source from the Ministry of Health and Welfare said that a UKHSA application has not yet been received, but will be considered in the context of Covid’s life plan.
In response to staff cuts, Paul Kane, director general of health operations, said: “In line with the government’s Covid-19 life plan, we are adjusting the size of our workforce as always planned. Temporary service contracts are terminated and those affected are updated. At the same time, we will build a new ability based on Covid’s lessons.
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“Those who joined NHS Test & Trace and Public Health England to manage the pandemic response have played a crucial role, and we thank them once again for their efforts.
The Living with Covid plan is not about plans to reduce UKHSA, instead it says, “UKHSA will continue to lead the wider health emergency planning and response system, protecting health security in the UK.” .
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