Justin Madders responds to Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch report on hospital Covid-19 infections

Justin Madders MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Minister, responding to the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) report, said:

“This is an important report highlighting the challenges the NHS has faced in understanding how covid19 was transmitted in hospitals and the significant effort that has gone in to limiting that transmission.

“There are a number of important recommendations in the report that Ministers must rapidly implement - not least the need to increase the availability and speed of testing for patients and NHS staff, something Labour has been calling for many months now.

“The NHS workforce were placed under immense pressure during the first Covid-19 wave and so there must be a workforce plan in place for the second wave with a guarantee that all staff will receive the support they need to keep themselves and patients safe.”