Public Health England ‘will be scrapped and replaced by a new body set up to deal with a pandemic to stop a second coronavirus spike’
- Matt Hancock is axing Public Health England and replacing it with a new body
- National Institute for Health Protection will deal specifically with pandemics
- Its chief will report to ministers, giving government control over its actions
Matt Hancock is axing Public Health England and will replace it with a new body to deal specifically with a pandemic as early as next month.
The Health Secretary will announce this week that the pandemic response work of PHE will be merged with NHS Test and Trace.
According to The Sunday Telegraph, the new body – the National Institute for Health Protection – will become ‘effective’ next month but will take until spring 2021 to totally break up PHE, an executive agency of the Department for Health.
Tory peer Baroness Harding, the ex-TalkTalk boss who currently runs NHS Test and Trace, is being tipped to lead the organisation, the paper reported.
It follows reports that the government has been frustrated with PHE during the coronavirus crisis, with Boris Johnson slamming its ‘sluggish’ response.
The move also comes amid fears of a second wave of coronavirus infections this autumn, with parts of the UK back into draconian lockdown as the disease spreads.
Matt Hancock is axing Public Health England and will replace it with a new body to deal specifically with a pandemic as early as next month. The Health Secretary will announce this week that the pandemic response work of PHE will be merged with NHS Test and Trace
According to The Sunday Telegraph, the new body – the National Institute for Health Protection – will become ‘effective’ next month but will take until spring 2021 to totally break up PHE, an executive agency of the Department for Health
A source told the paper: ‘It will be in place by September.’
Meanwhile a senior minister said the new body’s goal will be ‘to ensure that Britain is one of the best equipped countries in the world to fight the pandemic’.
They added: ‘We want to bring together the science and the scale in one new body so we can do all we can to stop a second coronavirus spike this autumn.’
The move is aimed at bringing together the science expertise at PHE and scale of the NHS Test and Trace operation in one new body, so that the country can be prepared to stop a potential second coronavirus spike this autumn.
The institute’s new chief will report to ministers at the Department of Health and to Professor Chris Whitty, England’s Chief Medical Officer, in a move which gives political appointments direct control over its response to pandemics.
Test and Trace call centres will be wound down over the next few months and replaced by local teams run by councils.
PHE’s anti-obesity will also be handed over to local councils and doctors, who are being encouraged to intervene to encourage people to lose weight.
The model for the new institute is the Robert Koch Institute in Germany, which published daily situation reports during the Covid outbreak.
Meanwhile the Health and Safety Executive, run by Tory MP Sarah Newton, will assist companies in getting more staff back to work.
The institute’s chief will report to ministers at the Department of Health and to Professor Chris Whitty, England’s Chief Medical Officer, in a move which gives political appointments direct control over its pandemic response (pictured, chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance)
Ex-Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said: ‘The one thing consistent about Public Health England is that almost everything it has touched has failed.’
A DHSC spokesman said: ‘Public Health England have played an integral role in our national response to this unprecedented global pandemic.
‘We have always been clear that we must learn the right lessons from this crisis to ensure that we are in the strongest possible position, both as we continue to deal with Covid-19 and to respond to any future public health threat.’
One Government source told The Sunday Telegraph: ‘One of the many problems with PHE is that it has been spread too thin during the full pandemic.
‘Instead of having an organisation that is constantly on alert for pandemics you have an organisation that has been concentrating on prevention of ill-health.’
PHE was criticised for not having enough diagnostic testing capacity to properly track the progress of the virus early in the pandemic.
Health officials are also furious with PHE for counting all deaths from Covid, rather than just those within the first 28 days of contracting the virus.