The Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock has announced plans for emergency measures to give ministers powers to take action to respond to the progress of the coronavirus outbreak.
The measures in the coronavirus bill are temporary, will only be used when strictly necessary and will be in place for as long as required to respond to the situation.
They are intended to ensure NHS and social care staff are supported to deal with significant extra pressure on the health system and fall into five key categories:
- containing and slowing the virus
- easing legislative and regulatory requirements
- enhancing capacity and the flexible deployment of staff across essential services
- managing the deceased in a dignified way
- supporting and protecting the public to do the right thing and follow public health advice
To ensure the NHS and adult social care have the additional staff capacity they need to respond to increasing demands on services during the outbreak, the powers enabled by the bill will allow recently retired NHS staff and social workers to return to work without any negative repercussions to their pensions.
NHS staff will also be covered by a state-backed insurance scheme to ensure they can care for patients if, for example, they are moving outside their day-to-day duties while making use of their skills and training.
Paperwork and administrative requirements will be reduced to help doctors discharge patients more quickly when clinically appropriate, to free up hospital space for those who are very ill and enable clinicians to focus on delivering care.
Volunteers will have extra employment safeguards, allowing them to pause their main jobs for up to four weeks while they help care for patients in the health and care system, and will receive a flat rate of compensation to mitigate lost earnings and expenses. This could benefit more than three million people who already volunteer in health and care settings and bolster the NHS’s capacity to respond to the virus.
The bill allows the four UK governments to switch on new powers when they are needed and, crucially, to switch them off again once they are no longer necessary, based on the advice of the four Chief Medical Officers.
The bill builds on the Treasury’s recent investment of £12 billion to support public services, people and businesses through the disruption caused by COVID-19 in the 2020 Budget.
Chief Medical Officer for England Professor Chris Whitty said: “Our approach to responding to this outbreak has and will remain driven by the scientific and clinical evidence so we do the right thing at the right time.
"The measures included in this bill will help support our frontline workers, protect the public and delay the peak of the virus to the summer months when the NHS is typically under less pressure. It is important everyone continues to play their part by avoiding non-essential contact and travel as well as washing their hands regularly for 20 seconds with soap and water.”
