FILE PHOTO: gency service ambulances are seen at the Aintree University Hospital before the Clap for our Carers campaign in support of the NHS, following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Liverpool, Britain, May 21, 2020. REUTERS/Phil Noble
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain should have learned more from other countries who were tackling coronavirus outbreaks earlier, the head of NHS England Simon Stevens said on Friday, acknowledging that not everything with the response had gone perfectly.
Asked by lawmakers on a parliamentary committee whether Britain should have learned lessons on things like the provision of protective equipment, Stevens, chief executive of the National Health Service in England, said: “I’m sure the answer to that is definitely yes.”
“I don’t think everything has gone perfectly, in a way how could it? There are clearly things that we will want to learn from and do differently in future,” he told the Public Accounts Committee.
Reporting by Michael Holden, writing by Elizabeth Piper; editing by Kate Holton