PHA boss accepts failings at UK Covid Inquiry

The Public Health Agency (PHA) was prevented from accessing crucial information which would have tracked Covid cases spreading in Northern Ireland in the early days of the pandemic.

The UK Covid-19 Inquiry has heard that "a data access block" from GP surgeries and critical care facilities meant the PHA did not receive reports of severe Coronavirus cases.

PHA chief executive Aidan Dawson admitted that getting rid of the data block should have been done much earlier.

The inquiry heard the change only came into effect last August - two and a half years after the problem arose.

Mr Dawson said there was no flow of information from GPs because they were individual contractors and there were three different IT systems being used by doctors in Northern Ireland at the time.

He said the data block meant the PHA was operating with "a considerable lack of information on what was happening in the community in terms of tracking the disease".

Mr Dawson said there was better information on Covid cases coming from critical care units than from GPs later in the pandemic because they were receiving direct data from hospitals.

The PHA chief accepted that there had been a failing by the agency to identify the importance of widespread Covid testing of healthcare workers and patients.

In addition, he admitted the agency should have done more to track the affect of the disease on people with disabilities and those from black and ethnic minority backgrounds.

But he also said the PHA did not have enough staff to deal with the pressures of the pandemic and that several senior staff were seconded to the Department of Health.

Reacting to the comments, Chair of the British Medical Association (BMA) NI said: "There was no data block".

Dr Alan Stout told BBC News NI he was "very surprised" by the evidence given by the PHA.

"We had set up Covid centres dealing specifically with Covid cases and suspected Covid, so there was no shortage of data," Dr Stout said.

"Information was shared."

He added that there was "endless data at practice level" and weekly meetings took place.

Responding to claims that there was a data block, Dr Stout said he was not sure what the PHA were referring to.

That they felt this way is "not something we were aware of," he added.

Mr Dawson told the UK inquiry that in future, closer co-operation with health authorities in the Republic should be considered.

"The other thing we are acutely aware of in Northern Ireland is that we are the only part of the UK with a direct land border with another country," he said.

"I think there needs to be a recommendation about how we work as an epidemiological unit as an island.

"We are working with the Republic counterparts on an all-Ireland surveillance system."

Mr Dawson told the inquiry he was "not thinking about it in terms of politics, I was only thinking about it in terms of health".

Speaking after the hearing, Enda McGarrity, a solicitor who represents bereaved families, said the evidence suggested that the PHA was "chronically underprepared for the pandemic and slow to respond".

"Bereaved families from Northern Ireland have had to suffer the harsh injustice of being excluded from an end-of-life visit with their loved one.

"They did so because they were following guidance which did not strike the balance between the competing legitimate interests of minimising the risk of transmission of the virus in hospitals and permitting families the dignity of seeing their loved one before they died."

He added: "The evidence they have heard today about the lack of reflection from the PHA on these issues will do little to comfort bereaved families that Northern Ireland would be any better prepared for a future pandemic."