Operational Resilience Consultant Matt Innerd MSc CBCI delivers guest lecture to BNU students on UK Public Health Incident Response

UK Public Health Incident Response: Do we ever learn lessons?

On Tuesday 16 April, BNU welcomed Matt Innerd MSc CBCI of Daisy UK (Operational Resilience) to talk to students from the School of Aviation and Security on the preparations and response of the UK government across three pandemics: Swine Flu (2009), Ebolavirus outbreak (2014) and Coronavirus (2020), focussing on lessons learned from our experiences of these health emergencies in the UK.

Unprepared

Matt has over 20 years of experience in a range of organisations responding to and managing many public health emergencies and evaluating their research lessons. His responsibilities included co-ordinating the local response to Swine Flu in 2009 and supporting the National Public Health Co-ordination Centre for the Ebola response in 2014. During both periods of crisis, Matt discussed the UK government's lack of preparation for health emergencies with the audience, recalling the rush he felt to become an 'expert' in disease almost overnight.

It was during Matt's first week at Public Health England that the Ebolavirus outbreak was declared a public health emergency of international concern. Matt recalls that information sharing was sparse, forcing organisations to 'guess' the best way to respond rather than following a strategic approach. Matt supported the national health co-ordination centre to send colleagues to Sierra Leone and other parts of West Africa to aid in the Ebola response.

Lessons learned

Speaking on lessons learned, Matt stated that by 2020 there had been minimal developments since the Swine Flu and Ebolavirus pandemics. He argued that the UK government were initially slow to respond to the rising concerns of the British public as coronavirus swept over Europe.

Due a lack of communication, many hospital staff had no knowledge on key changes that would affect their way of working, such as new PPE requirements that were introduced at that time. Matt spoke of many hospitals scrambling for FFP or other appropriate protection, but due to a lack of emergency planning officers in post, there was often no response strategy in place. On many occasions, incorrect and limited supplies of PPE were also delivered.

Matt did touch on the few improvements that have been made since 2014, highlighting the amount of effort that individual people put into their responses and the government's commitment to enhancing public health surveillance and responses in developing countries.

Recommendations for the future

Matt ended the lecture with four recommendations to ensure that UK government are adequately prepared for any future health emergencies, including: a national co-ordinated response effort, the depoliticization of emergency health responses, additional support for the NHS and the speed in which the government responds to a potential health crisis.

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