Matt Hancock says government 'got it wrong' with funeral restrictions and visiting dying relatives during pandemic

21 November 2024, 14:03 | Updated: 21 November 2024, 14:10

Matt Hancock says the government "got it wrong" with restrictions around funerals and visiting dying relatives during the pandemic.

The former Health Secretary is giving evidence to the Covid-19 inquiry for the third time.

As he entered Dorland House in London, where the inquiry is talking place, he was booed by a protester.

Bereaved families are demonstrating outside the hearing - some with banners and others holding pictures of loved ones.

'Broadly right'

He added he thinks they got decisions "broadly right".

"I think, on balance, we got those broadly right across the pandemic, but I entirely understand and feel the very strong arguments on both sides."

He added: "Where I think we got it wrong, for instance, was the way that the funeral guidance was applied on the ground, it wasn't as had been intended.

Read more: Former deputy PM John Prescott dies aged 86 following battle with Alzheimer's

Read more: 'Devastated' Tony Blair leads tributes to John Prescott after former deputy PM dies aged 86

"But of course, funerals are places where people gather and are deeply emotional and people come together, and that was also the thing that was driving the spread of the virus. So these were very difficult considerations, and broadly on balance, I think they were about right.

"But we can go through every single decision, and you can, you can easily make an argument one way or the other."

The former minister was also shown a clip of a senior medic breaking down in tears while recalling his experiences of the Covid-19 pandemic.

It comes as the former health secretary was challenged during his evidence to the Covid-19 inquiry on his semantics about the NHS being overwhelmed.

The inquiry played Mr Hancock a video of Professor Kevin Fong - former national clinical adviser in emergency preparedness, resilience and response at NHS England - who gave an emotional statement to the probe in September.

At the time, Prof Fong said "we had nurses talking about patients raining from the sky", with units running out of body bags and being issued nine-foot plastic sacks and cable ties.

In response, Mr Hancock told the inquiry: "The system as a whole had to cope with more than it has had to cope with at any other time in modern history.

"Of course, there were deeply challenging problems, as we've just seen, and there are countless examples of that.

"And at the same time, we had people who were at risk of dying from not coming forward. And it was therefore important, and my responsibility and my duty, to ensure that the public felt that, should they really need it, the NHS was there for them."

Inquiry counsel Jacqueline Carey said: "If you made a statement like 'the NHS was not overwhelmed', and you can't get an ICU bed because you're old or you've got Down syndrome or because there aren't enough nurses, people would say that is overwhelmed, wouldn't they? And that's why it's not just semantics."

Mr Hancock said: "I'm saying that the substance is what matters here. And for instance, when an ICU didn't have any more capacity, the NHS' response was to then ensure that there were transfers available to other places, because there was the picture was never even across the country.

"That is the system wide response, but it doesn't take away from the individual pressures."

Bereaved families who are demonstrating outside the Covid-19 inquiry during the lunch break have rolled out a red carpet with the words "let bereaved families give evidence".

A group of people are stood in front of the carpet outside Dorland House in London, with some holding banners and others holding pictures of loved ones.

'Falling off a cliff'

Sarah Steven, a member of the group Clinically Vulnerable Families, said "today is really key for us but we're not expecting to hear anything we don't already know".

The 52-year-old, who was clinically vulnerable during the pandemic, described the end of lockdown rules in July 2021 as like "falling off a cliff edge" with "no support".

Another member of the group, Andrea Barrett, 30, said she caught Covid and it developed into long Covid and now she is not able to work.