'127,000 deaths - no way that can be judged a success', Doctor tells LBC
11 May 2021, 12:50 | Updated: 11 May 2021, 14:42
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Former A&E Doctor Parth Patel warns the number of Covid deaths is 'just the beginning' of 'looming crises to come' in public services such as the NHS, schools, and the judiciary.
Dr Parth Patel is a research fellow at University College London, who worked as an A&E doctor during the first wave of Coronavirus.
Speaking to Tom Swarbrick, Dr Patel said: "Public opinion is very dynamic, things change very quickly. Go back to towards that period in the spring, of course, things were very different. December - Christmas was cancelled, public opinion of government handling wasn't very positive.
"We've just come forward three or four months really and things have changed very quickly. We've got vaccines rolled out - that's the way to get your life back, it's the way to hug your family and friends again.
"We've got a social and an economic reawakening."
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Dr Patel then explained, "the pandemic fallout" saying "it's just the beginning" of the backlogs and problems in the NHS, schools, the courts, and employment - referencing the eventual end of furlough.
"The public won't blame the Tories for that at the start, but that patience will eventually wear thin."
Tom replied: "After this global pandemic, it's actually the recovery, the fact that we've got out of it, which is remembered far more than the errors and dithers and delay at the beginning of it."
Dr Parth Patel agreed, saying: "There's definitely academic evidence saying that's what people remember - it's always the end of a crisis.
"The inquiry will be quite an important potential linchpin if it can get through - I don't know how much of the inquiry will come into the public discourse.
"I think history will probably judge it differently to public opinion. Let's not look at the next few months, if you look through the next decade or so if you look back historically I think the judgement will be quite clear - 127,000 deaths - there's no way that can be judged as a success."
