The People's Covid Inquiry would like to invite you to register for the seventh session of the Inquiry, taking place next week on Wednesday 19 May 2021 at 7pm.
This session will ask if there was profiteering from the COVID-19 pandemic, if so who benefitted, and are those people being held to account?
Introduced by former Children's Laureate Michael Rosen, who himself spent months in intensive care after contracting coronavirus, the Inquiry will hear from witnesses including David McCoy, Professor of Global Health Medicine, NHS GP Dr David Wrigley, deputy chair British Medical Association, Dr Michelle Dawson, NHS Consultant Anaesthetist, trustee Healthcare Workers’ Foundation charity (previously ‘Heroes’) and a representative of Foxglove, a campaign against secrecy surrounding coronavirus NHS data contracts.
The Inquiry panel will include, as it always has, Michael Mansfield QC as the chair, Professor Neena Modi, Dr Tolullah Oni, Dr Jacky Davis and Lorna Hackett as Counsel to the Inquiry.
Corrupt cronyism
Under the cover of an emergency, the government awarded £18bn in coronavirus-related
contracts during the first six months of the pandemic, most with no competitive tendering
processes. Meanwhile contracts totalling £1.5bn went to companies with connections to the
Conservative party. A high priority lane was set up for suppliers referred by senior politicians
and officials, and companies with a political referral were ten times as likely to win a
contract than those without. Despite legal challenges, details of many of these contract
awards have still not been placed in the public domain.
In order to explore these issues, we will hear from experts about the extent of privatisation
in the NHS, the scale of privatisation during the pandemic and how pre-pandemic
outsourcing may have contributed to a failure of response. We will hear from those who, in
relation to covid contracts, have mounted legal challenges on behalf of the taxpayer. In
other sessions we have heard from staff, patients and family members who have been
directly affected by decisions to outsource clinical and support services contracts.
Register for the next session
The next session of the People's Covid Inquiry takes place at 7pm on Wednesday 19 May. You can register to take part by registering on Zoom.
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If you have enjoyed listening to witnesses about their experiences of the pandemic then please share your story by filling in our survey.
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