Getting behind the Curve? Is the NHS ready for pandemic flu?

This report finds that reforms made to the NHS following the Health and Social Care Act of 2012 have impacted upon its ability to deal effectively with a possible flu pandemic.

It highlights three potential problems which the new NHS now faces in dealing with a possible pandemic:

1. a loss of expertise, personal relationships and institutional memory in dealing with public health emergencies from within the NHS as a result of the 2012 reforms;

2. the lack of clear accountability arrangements and a ‘clear line of sight’ under the new system; and

3. the co-ordination of increasing numbers of private providers of NHS services in a health care system underpinned by contracts.