Former No10 adviser wrote 'NHS F*****' in Sage meeting notes
The Covid-19 Inquiry has heard that a former adviser to the prime minister during the pandemic wrote "NHS f***** in any scenario" in his notes at a Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) meeting in February 2020. In his witness statement, Ben Warner said he did not recall the details but presumed he meant the NHS would be under "extreme stress". Report by Brooksl. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
Transcript
00:00 So we see in square brackets there NHS **** in any scenario. Do you see that?
00:07 Yes.
00:08 And I'll ask you about that, but before I do, can we go over the page, because there's
00:12 one other reference which may be driven, driving at the same thing, or it may not be. Do you
00:18 see four lines down? It says long peak over health capacity.
00:22 Yes.
00:23 Now help us, it would seem at any rate that both of those references perhaps are to concerns
00:31 about the NHS being overwhelmed.
00:34 I believe that it says this in the reasonable worst case scenario document that Sage is
00:37 discussing. They say that in these reasonable worst case scenarios the NHS is overwhelmed.
00:44 Yes. Perhaps we can go back to the previous page. Your note talks about the NHS being
00:50 **** in any scenario. Is there any significance in the word any? I mean, are you, do we see
00:58 that?
00:59 I believe it's probably, and I would suggest that the document that Sage is discussing
01:04 is the way to investigate this, but what I would suggest is that it is likely that, as
01:09 we've seen multiple times, that the graph is drawn with an unmitigated peak, a mitigated
01:15 peak, and maybe multiple mitigated peaks, depending on the interventions that were brought
01:18 in at that time. All of those are likely over the top for the reasonable worst case scenario.
01:28 So it's the various sort of modelled or proposed peaks that are the any?
01:34 I mean, I am guessing, given what's in my witness statement and what's in my notes,
01:42 but that does look to be the obvious conclusion.