Responding to the publication of the ‘COVID-19 Response - Spring
2021’ Roadmap, which sets out the government’s plans to exit
lockdown, the chief executive of NHS Providers, said:
“In our letter to the Prime Minister last week, we set out four
evidence-based tests on infection rates, NHS capacity, the
progress of the vaccination campaign and our ability to combat
new variants, with a call for caution and an emphasis on data,
not dates.
Today’s Roadmap shows those calls have been heeded, but it is
vital the government continues to take a cautious and evidence
based approach over the coming months.
“Trust leaders know how hard lockdown has been and how keen
everyone is to get back to normal. And while the cautious
approach outlined in today’s Roadmap won’t be fast enough for
some, history has sadly taught us that rushing headfirst into
lifting lockdown leads only to rapid reimposition, tragic loss of
life, and avoidable patient harm.
“So it is right that that the government will introduce a gap of
at least five weeks ahead of every step, in which it will pause,
examine the data, and assess the impact of steps taken so far
before going any further.
“It is also vital that the government is open and transparent
about the thresholds it will be working to at every stage.
“The Prime Minister has said that he wants these steps to be
cautious but irreversible.
“So over the coming weeks and months, we will need to keep a
close eye on COVID-19 case numbers. This will be vital in
preventing infections surging again which would put unsustainable
pressure on NHS capacity.
“Our fantastic vaccination campaign continues to go from strength
to strength and the results published today by Edinburgh
University and Public Health Scotland on the vaccine effect on
hospitalisations are very encouraging.
“But we still have a long way to go. The government has rightly
set an ambitious target for all over 50s to be vaccinated by 15
April and indeed, for all adults to be offered a vaccine by the
end of July.
“Alongside this, we must have a robust and effective strategy to
rapidly identify and control future outbreaks from the variant
strains that now pose the greatest threat.
“If we are absolutely sure that this is the last lockdown and the
changes being put in place now are ‘irreversible’ as the Prime
Minister indicates, then a cautious approach is the right one.”
