Government should declare “national emergency” over NHS crisis, say peers

Pressures on emergency health services are so bad that the UK government should declare a “national emergency” and call a meeting of the Civil Contingencies Committee (COBRA)—the body summoned periodically to deal with matters of major disruption—peers have said.

The cross party House of Lords Public Services Committee said in a report that the government needed to respond with an emergency approach and steps to remedy the situation in the longer term.1

A recurring theme of the report is the substantial delays highlighted by the media in recent months, which peers said were caused by …