The Primary Care Body has accused ministers of a raft of failures at the start of the pandemic, and claimed that many of the decision-making errors made at the outset of the outbreak remain a part of ministerial policy today.
In a submission to the Response to Covid-19 Scrutiny Panel, a representative for the PCB said: ‘Like in the British Isles there was talk of “flattening the curve” and development of herd immunity “downplaying the seriousness of Covid and its potential risk of spread”. This somewhat fatalistic approach appears to remain at the forefront of government thinking.’ Among a catalogue of criticisms, the PCB accused ministers of:
– Building the £14m Nightingale Hospital despite case numbers never approaching a point where it ‘would have been feasible to use it’ or have the ‘ability to staff it’.
– Failing to introduce border controls earlier and, once in place, they should have been maintained for longer ‘emulating many other jurisdictions’.
– Lifting the first 2020 lockdown for ‘largely economic reasons’, leading to restrictions over Christmas while Guernsey, which remained more heavily restricted for longer, ‘enjoyed near normality’ over the festive season.
– Failing to release minutes from advisory group STAC directly to medical professionals on the front line.
– Communication from ministers ‘was and remains sadly lacking, despite efforts from the Primary Care Body on behalf of wider general practice’.
The PCB also said that Jersey was slower to develop a test-and-trace programme – although conceded that once in place it ‘eventually proved useful and effective’.
Discussing the spread of Covid in the Island’s care homes, the body said: ‘Some of our most vulnerable patients were initially sent back to residential/nursing homes without having been tested for the virus.
‘This led to rapid spread within institutional care and a consequent high proportion of deaths of patients being cared for. The situation was compounded by the lack of PPE, which was denied by the government, and extended to carers working in patients’ homes.’
The letter continued: ‘The timing of lockdowns requires further exploration. Again, these largely followed the pattern in the British Isles but could reasonably have deviated more than they did to considerable advantage. Jersey lifted the lockdown at the beginning of summer 2020 for largely economic reasons. It would be important to ascertain if the perceived benefits outweighed the fact that there were further deaths, particularly following emergence of the delta variant, and Islanders spent Christmas in relative isolation whilst our sister island enjoyed near normality.’
Jersey, the PCB said, had been ‘fortunate’ to be part of the British vaccination programme which gained early access to doses which the Island ‘benefited extensively’ from.
Praise was reserved for the implementation of the Urgent Treatment Centre at the Hospital, which the body described as an ‘excellent temporary addition to the initial fight against Covid’.
‘Unfortunately, however, during this period there was little support from the Emergency Department, even when it was clear that the UTC was very busy and the Emergency Department was quiet. Likewise, despite nearly all hospital services being suspended, doctors were not seconded to the UTC,’ the submission added.
‘Some patients attending the UTC would clearly have been more appropriately triaged to the ED, eg road traffic accidents and stroke patients.
‘There was an expectation of patients being managed within the UTC when it was not necessarily the most appropriate place for them to be cared for.’
The PCB also praised deputy medical officer of health Dr Ivan Muscat, who they said had been ‘thrust to the fore’ and provided ‘cogent advice throughout the most difficult of times’.
Earlier this month, PCR testing for double-vaccinated passengers arriving in the Island was scrapped, while the JEP reported yesterday that the testing facility in Jersey is set to close at the end of the month.
On Friday, ministers issued renewed strong guidance to wear masks in indoor public spaces and take lateral-flow tests regularly amid a surge in the number of known active cases in recent weeks. Yesterday, the number stood at 611.
