Operation Cygnus 2016 - the Government knew about how the NHS could not cope with a pandemic and suppressed the report

[chomalungma]

In the Telegraph

This is a link not in a paywall

www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/coronavirus-uk-warned-3-years-21773821

Ministers were told that hospitals would rapidly run out of intensive care beds, mortuaries would be overwhelmed and doctors would be forced to deny frail patients critical care.

A classified report on Cygnus’s findings - which has never been made public - highlighted problems delivering protective equipment such as masks and gowns to health workers, an issue which has been frequently raised by medics battling Covid-19.

It suggested that health bosses would have no choice but to “switch off” large parts of the NHS.

Among the most worrying conclusions was that a pandemic could result in doctors having to adopt a “battlefield” mentality and prioritise patients for treatment depending on survival chances.

But despite the shocking findings, it did not lead to the government changing its plans for future pandemics, which were last updated in 2014.

Officials say Cygnus’s results have been largely kept quiet due to “biosecurity” concerns and not wanting to alarm the public.

However, documents seen by the Sunday Telegraph reveal that it did lead to guidelines being sent to NHS trusts on how to prepare for a pandemic.

The exercise also led to ministers drawing up draft emergency legislation, which formed the basis of the Coronavirus Bill approved by the House of Commons last week, giving ministers sweeping powers to tackle the crisis

So that's how the leglisation was so quick to come out.

I hope that the NHS and Government acted on this operation

I certainly hope that this pandemic is used to improve things for the future.
However, the NHS cannot keep thousands of icu beds unused for the 'just in case' scenario, so 'pop up hospitals' would always be required.
Also, one cannot keep thousands (millions?) of PPE available in storage for years on the off chance of a pandemic, because a) they become ouf of date (HCPs have already mentioned this), standards change, and b) even plastic stuff degrades over time (plastic bags in my loft have disintegrated).
That said, there should be provision for production in this country or expansion of production in this country, of PPE, etc.
Also, just as companies have 'disaster recovery' training, maybe the NHS should have pandemic trainin.

Talking about in on Marr now

A link to austerity has been mentioned - especially with regards to ICU beds.