England’s public health reorganisation could hamper response to a flu pandemic, report says

The government’s overhaul of the NHS has left England dangerously unprepared for a flu pandemic, a new report has claimed.

The analysis by the Centre for Health and the Public Interest, a health think tank, warns that the coalition government’s restructuring of the NHS in England has led to a fragmented system and a loss of institutional memory that could seriously hamper a response to any potential flu pandemic.1

Pandemic flu is identified as one of the four highest-priority risks on the government’s national risk register of civil emergencies.

But the report warns that changes to the NHS—which included replacing managerial structures across England, moving public health administration from the NHS …