Technocrats at the Public Health England (PHE) agency advising the British government during the coronavirus pandemic have behaved like “rabbits in the headlights” and proved themselves “not fit for purpose”, according to a top care executive.
Professor Martin Green, who leads the Care England — which is both a charity and the “leading representative body for independent care services in England” according to its website — said the PHE quango led by Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty had proved particularly hopeless on the issue of personal protection equipment (PPE).
“PPE has been from the start of this pandemic, a real challenge,” Professor Green explained in comments to The Sun.
“It’s partly been a challenge because of the distribution but it’s also partly been a challenge because we have not received proper and consistent and clear advice from people like [Public Health England],” he said.
“They should have been giving us real clear advice about the levels of PPE that are used in what situations.
“That’s left both care providers, but also people who use services very confused. It’s also led, I think, to the misuse of PPE in some areas.”
Professor Green acknowledged that some government and government-associated bodies had been “really nimble” and responded well to the pandemic — but “some have been like rabbits in the headlights because their processes and their cultures are not fit for purpose when you have to make instant decisions.
“We need to take a long hard look as to whether or not they’re useful, needed or delivering what we actually need in a crisis,” he added gravely — suggesting that once the dust settles it will be time to ask “do we need them at all into the future?”
Critics of PHE have also questioned why it has consistently advised against implementing bans on travel from virus-stricken countries or even imposing a quarantine requirement on new arrivals, as it long-running resistance to restricting mass gatherings, travel on mass transit, and insistence that members of the public should not wear masks — a subject on which the World Health Organization (WHO), the U.S. Surgeon General, and a number of Western government have now U-turned.
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