Top doctor was terrified NHS might be overwhelmed during Covid

Sir Stephen said work on the guidance document had started early in the pandemic, at a time when the number of patients in intensive care in England was doubling every 5-7 days.

“It was not clear that the public would respond to lockdown – they did wonderfully – but that wasn’t clear [at that point],” he said.

“Frankly, I was personally terrified that the NHS was going to be overwhelmed.”

The project was halted on 28 March 2020, after it became clear the peak of the first Covid wave was approaching and the health service would not “breach capacity”.

Sir Stephen said there was also a danger the point-scoring system could have been “used inappropriately”, replacing the individual clinical judgement of doctors.

“My recommendation to the inquiry is that we should absolutely, in the future, not try and develop one of these tools in the midst of a pandemic,” he added.

He said it was a piece of work that needed to be carried out in consultation with the public “in normal times”.

“In my view, it’s a discussion that shouldn’t be government-led, it shouldn’t even be led by the profession, it needs to be located within society.”