U.K. Scraps Public Health Body in Shakeup of Pandemic Response

(Bloomberg) -- U.K. Health Secretary Matt Hancock axed Public Health England, the agency blamed by officials for delaying the country’s coronavirus testing program.

PHE, set up only seven years ago by one of Hancock’s Conservative predecessors, will be replaced by a new health agency with control over all aspects of tackling the Covid-19 outbreak.

The government was strongly criticized over Britain’s slow response to the pandemic, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson unwilling to cancel public gatherings or even advise against shaking hands. Officials have since said they were hampered by PHE’s lack of testing capacity early on, a factor which contributed to the U.K. recording the highest death toll in Europe.

Johnson has said a public inquiry is needed to learn the lessons from the U.K.’s response, though he has yet to set the timeframe or scope.

In a speech in London from which the media was excluded on Tuesday, Hancock said the reorganization is needed “to give ourselves the best chance of beating this virus once and for all -- and of spotting and being ready to respond to other health threats, now and in the future.”

Winter Threat

Though Hancock praised Public Health England, its scrapping while the crisis remains far from over shows the government regards a new approach as necessary ahead of a potential new wave of infections in the winter. The body’s chief executive, Duncan Selbie, is to be replaced, though he will be kept on the government payroll as a senior adviser.

Dido Harding, the former chief executive officer of TalkTalk Telecom Group Plc who currently runs the government’s Covid-19 track and trace program, will lead the new National Institute for Health Protection while a permanent head is found. The body will bring together Public Health England’s pandemic functions, the tracing program and the government’s Joint Biosecurity Centre under a single leadership team, reporting to Hancock’s department.

Hancock said the body will have a “single and relentless mission” of protecting the country from health threats including pandemics and infectious diseases.

“My single biggest fear is a novel flu, or another major health alert, hitting us right now in the middle of this battle against coronavirus,” he said. “Even once this crisis has passed -- and it will pass -- we need a disease control infrastructure that gives us the permanent, standing capacity to respond as a nation and the ability to scale up at pace.”

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