Dr Waqar Rashid Dr Waqar Rashid

The NHS should be wary of being used as a political tool

When I heard politicians insist they were being ‘led by the science’ in their response to coronavirus, it worried me for a couple of reasons. Firstly, a scientist will happily lead you down the path they believe in, but it is rare to have only one scientific view. It would be far more accurate for politicians to say we are being led by ‘one hypothesis’ from ‘one scientific group’. The modelling from Imperial that led to the current lockdown policy informed ‘the science’ but it’s now clear it was not the only scientific view.

Secondly, if the situation calls for an intervention and there is no cause and effect – i.e. if lockdown is easily achieved and it causes no damage – then you could easily argue that there is nothing to lose, and translate this ‘science’ into action. But clearly this is not the case. A range of science should advise but not lead. Over a decade ago there was a worldwide campaign about the dangers of over-exposure to the sun and skin cancers. This possibly resulted in a generation with vitamin D deficiency and may have led to a rise in certain conditions such as multiple sclerosis. Life is never simple.

I have great admiration for scientists, whether they are mathematicians, epidemiologists or disease specialists. They can be fascinating and brilliant in their own subjects. But with coronavirus, we may talk a lot about the science, but the key is the translation of science into medicine. I would be fascinated to know the make-up of the scientific advisory group for emergencies which is helping the government in its response to the virus. I strongly suspect it does not have enough clinical representation and any medical presence in the group is skewed towards emergency medicine and infectious disease. It’s why – to me – it was entirely predictable that serious health conditions such as heart disease and cancer would be overlooked when the lockdown was debated, because it seems somehow to have caught the government and its advisors by surprise.

Prior to the Covid-19 outbreak – due to the recognised delay in diagnosing and treating cancer in the UK in comparison to equivalent countries such as Germany or France – the NHS had a system of urgent specialist referral and opinion within two weeks of suspected cancer symptoms being reported to the GP.

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Dr Waqar Rashid
Written by
Dr Waqar Rashid
Dr Waqar Rashid is a consultant neurologist at St George's University Foundation Hospital NHS Trust, London. This article is a personal view and does not necessarily represent the views of the Trust. He tweets at @DrWaqarRashid1

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