Addressing issues relating to service utilising capacity and opportunity

During the pandemic concerns were raised relating to how effectively the services put in place for testing and the delivery of vaccinations were utilised. The inquiry should investigate these areas to understand:

Were services for testing and vaccination, throughout the whole period of the pandemic, fully resourced and operated according to requirements of the pandemic? Or were services set up only within the scope of the current capacities available?

Throughout the pandemic a constant message from the WHO and health organisations was that speed and commitment of action was a key strategy for success management. At an early stage the message related to 'test, test, test' calling for maximum utilisation of testing to help understand the infection levels and movement of cases. As the process of testing rolled it and throughout the different stages of the pandemic, the criteria for eligibility for tests fluctuated and decisions were made based on test positivity and infection rates. The number of tests taken greatly fluctuated with reports of people not being able to access tests or being denied tests as testing centres were being operated with restricted times and personal. This same concern was raised during the delivery of test & protect, with reports of pure contact rates and the service only operating during 'office hours'. The same concerns hampered the role out of vaccines with reports of low take up rates caused in part by the process of notifying people of their appointments by out dated and unchecked methods (thousands of blue envelopes being sent to contacts on address lists that are years old). These questions are important as it is vital to understand if the pandemic response and the actions required were addressed as a priority over all others, or was the response treated as a low priority with resources only fitted into non pandemic structures, thus causing inefficiency though inappropriate planning and resourcing.