Pandemic unit ‘always on alert’
A PANDEMIC-fighting unit is being set up to stop the next health crisis in its tracks, Matt Hancock has announced.
The Health Secretary said the agency will be a protective shield around the UK, on permanent alert to respond quickly to outbreaks.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) will be led by deputy chief medical officer Dr Jenny Harries.
Mr Hancock said: “I want everybody at UKHSA, at all levels, to wake up every day with a zeal to plan for the next pandemic.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated the world-leading capabilities of the country’s public health science.
“It has also shown the challenges of protecting the nation’s health are changing at an unprecedented pace, as new threats emerge.”
The Health Secretary said it was vital to have an agency with total focus on responding to pandemics and threats such as bioterrorism.
He added: “Even after years without a major public health threat, UKHSA must be ready, not just to do the science, but to respond at unbelievable pace.” The organisation will launch on April 1 and is expected to be fully operational by autumn. It will take on work currently done by Public Health England (PHE), NHS Test and Trace and the Joint Biosecurity Centre.
At the start of the pandemic the Government was frustrated with the bureaucratic response of PHE and its refusal to allow external laboratories to help. Responsibilities for dealing with a pandemic were spread across several agencies.
But Mr Hancock said the vaccines programme has been a template of how governments can get things done by bringing together science, enterprise and the NHS.
Dr Harries said the agency will be “relentless in its mission” to rapidly identify and respond to new threats.
She said: “The pandemic has put the UK’s health security capabilities in sharp focus and the UKHSA will change the way we approach health protection.”
Ian Hudspeth, from the Local Government Association, said the new system must recognise the health inequalities between the rich and poor that were exposed by the pandemic. He added: “We have learnt that responding to and recovering from an outbreak of this scale should start at the local level, working closely with national agencies.”