Professor Kevin Fong has testified at the Covid inquiry, recounting his experiences visiting hospitals during the pandemic. During a hospital visit in December 2020, Fong recalled how an ICU doctor told him it was like responding to a daily terrorist attack, and they did not know when the attacks would stop. Fong described the pandemic as “the biggest national emergency this country has faced since World War Two” and repeatedly broke down in tears when describing what he had witnessed.
Fong conducted approximately 40 visits of “the hardest-hit” ICU units, offering support to doctors and nurses working there. He reported his findings to senior managers, including the chief medical officer Professor Sir Chris Whitty. Fong said that “despite the best efforts of everyone in the system”, demand for medical care caused by Covid meant that it was “not possible to deliver the standard of care that would ordinarily be expected.” The scale of death was “very difficult to capture”, with nurses claiming that patients were “raining from the sky”.
In December 2020, Fong was asked to visit a medium-sized ICU unit that was breaking at the seams. The hospital was in massive trouble, and there were so few staff that some nurses had to use patient commodes or wear adult diapers as there was no time for toilet breaks. Fong called it a “scene from hell”.
Chris Whitty agreed with Fong, commenting that the “political choice” of lower levels of intensive care reserve beds in England compared to similar high-income countries made hospitals less prepared for a major emergency like Covid-19. He stated without various social restrictions, the situation would have worsened beyond a catastrophic level. When asked about the PPE used by healthcare workers, he said messaging around the different types of masks was “confused” from the beginning, leading to an “erosion of trust”
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