Writing in The MJ, Claire argues that the rapid rollout of covid vaccines shows what is possible when unnecessary bureaucracy is stripped away…
One common argument given by for vaccine hesitancy is: how could the jabs be developed so quickly? In response, officialdom has been forced to admit that one key reason it’s been possible to develop safe, life-saving vaccines in super-fast time is because many unnecessary bureaucratic and regulatory barriers were removed. Perhaps it’s a lesson that can be applied more broadly: it is a reminder that too much risk-averse regulation can get in the way of creative solutions.
So, I was encouraged to read in a recent letter from Department of Health and Social Care ministers to The Lords that their legislative proposals for a Health and Care Bill ‘will remove unnecessary bureaucracy that has made sensible decision-making harder’. It was noted that ‘the experience of the coronavirus pandemic’ has prompted a desire to ‘make it easier for local leaders to innovate by removing barriers and providing greater flexibility’. Good. But I hope we don’t have to wait for this new law to deploy such flexibility in the urgent challenges of social care for the elderly in residential homes.
Read the full article here.