Covid Inquiry: Chief medical officer experienced 'pushback' from PHA

Northern Ireland's chief medical officer said he experienced "significant incredulity and pushback" from the Public Health Agency (PHA) in the first year of the pandemic.

Sir Michael McBride made the comments in an email to his Department of Health colleagues in September 2020.

The email was within a thread about contact tracing resource requirements and tracing capacity.

It appeared among documents released on the Covid inquiry website on Tuesday.

The PHA had been advised by the chief scientific officer Professor Ian Young that it needed to be able to manage 500 cases a day, which would require the recruitment of 300 to 600 staff members.

'Deeply frustrating'

Sir Michael said in his email that he had directed PHA to double its contact tracing capacity in August 2020.

But as the email thread makes clear, that wasn't done, prompting Sir Michael to write: "I struggle to understand what more is required other than to give operational effect."

Before signing the email off, he wrote the words "deeply frustrating".

It followed an email earlier that day written by the then director of public health in the PHA, Professor Hugo Van Woerden.

He wrote: "To recruit 300 to 600 staff, the PHA would have to double its size and I do think we may need to explore the feasibility of that without extensive engagement of the rest of the HSC.

"I think that Michael acknowledged that when the Contact Tracing Steering group was set up that a large increase of size for the PHA would be very challenging, should it be required."

Sir Michael is due to appear before the Covid inquiry on Friday.