Sir, – I welcome the long-awaited announcement from the Government on the format and time-frame of the evaluation of the Covid-19 pandemic (“Government’s Covid ‘evaluation’ to be voluntary, with no powers of compellability”, News, October 31st).
It is regrettable that this has taken so long. I hope that some who have the potential to greatly contribute will not be put off by the delay as they may not want to revisit what may have been a stressful time for them. Nonetheless, it is better late than never.
The Government has made the right call regarding the format of the assessment. It is both voluntary and an evaluation, not an inquiry. It should above all else be an exercise in listening and learning, and not in finger-pointing, scapegoating or denunciations of decisions made in good faith. All of us, whether healthcare workers or in other settings, had difficult decisions to make in an ever-changing environment. Often it was not a question of making the best decision but deciding on what was the least worst option. Subsequently, we might have felt that a different decision would have been better, but we made decisions and took action to the best of our ability at the time and with the knowledge we had then. The format under Prof Anne Scott will, I am sure, provide a comfortable and welcome space in which those that contribute can open up and talk frankly. For some, it may be traumatic. They may have had Covid-19 themselves and may still be suffering the consequences, they may have lost loved ones, or they may have been very traumatised by the pandemic. However, their insight, knowledge, experiences and opinions will be rich material from which to make conclusions and learn.
Undoubtedly mistakes were made but we should also acknowledge and record what was well done. Both are important in deciding what we might do next time and what might be relevant now in improving our health service, governance arrangements, education sector, and indeed many other spheres throughout civic society.
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The benefit of public sessions when we can hear those involved share their experiences has to be balanced by the stress that this may represent for some involved, especially when the memories may be painful. The UK inquiry has been as much about political and other score settling as it has been on shedding light and on learning.
The remit is quite broad and I hope that the Government has not asked the group to “bite off more than it can chew”, especially if it is to report in 12 to 18 months. Any delay in this will add to time lost since the pandemic and may potentially lessen the impact of its findings. I wish the evaluation well and very much look forward to its findings. – Yours, etc,
HILARY HUMPHREYS,
Emeritus Professor of Clinical Microbiology,
Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland,
Dublin 2.