Redeployed nurses ‘disempowered’ and with ‘little support’, finds Covid inquiry

The redeployment of staff during the Covid-19 crisis left nurses feeling ‘disempowered’ and with ‘little support’ to work in unfamiliar roles and surroundings, a national inquiry has found.

The UK Covid-19 Inquiry has today published its third report and recommendations following its investigation into the impact of the pandemic on healthcare systems, staff and patients.

Among its calls for action is a focus on staff redeployment, with the government urged to use future pandemic plans to ‘carefully consider’ the effects of redeployment and to ensure that any staff deployed in a future emergency ‘are restored as soon as possible’.

Chaired by Baroness Hallett, the inquiry concluded that UK healthcare systems were ‘overwhelmed’ and ‘came close to collapse’ during the pandemic which first struck in 2020.

‘That collapse was only narrowly avoided because of the extraordinary efforts of all those working in healthcare across the UK. Their commitment and dedication were remarkable,’ the inquiry said.

Thousands of staff, including nurses and GPs, were redeployed into frontline settings – including critical care – in response to the outbreak of Covid-19.

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The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) had also launched a temporary register for returning nurses and for some student nurses to help increase staffing capacity across the country.

In March 2020, as the first wave of the pandemic began, the inquiry highlighted that UK nursing vacancies were ‘particularly acute’, with the rate standing at 9.9%. In England, the NHS staff vacancy rate stood at 7% at the start of the outbreak, rising to almost 10% by June 2022, according to the report.

The Department of Health and Social Care had accepted to the inquiry that: ‘Had there been more staff available during the pandemic and had the system not already been running at capacity without the additional strain of the pandemic, there would have been less of a need for staff redeployment and less of a need to reduce some forms of elective care.’

The inquiry stressed that while staff redeployment ‘bolstered the number of people working in critical care’ it came at the ‘expense of other areas of healthcare’.

It explained how some services that had not been formally suspended ‘could not be maintained’.

‘For example, cancer screening in England could not be continued because of redeployment of staff to support intensive care or urgent emergency care,’ it said.

The inquiry also recognised that redeployed nursing staff and healthcare assistants required additional training and support to ensure they had the appropriate skills.

But it cited Professor Simon Ball, chief medical officer of University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust from January 2019 to January 2024, who said: ‘Despite the training, clinical materials and support offered to staff working in new areas, unfamiliarity with new clinical areas was associated with delays and sometimes deficiencies in care, such as timely transfer of patients from wards.’

One nurse who was redeployed during the pandemic explained to the inquiry: ‘I felt disempowered when forced into unfamiliar roles without proper training.’

Another nurse who was redeployed said: ‘I’d not worked on a hospital ward for over 20 years, so felt like a duck out of water, it was a steep learning curve to work in an area so stressful with little support.’

The report also points to concerns raised about ‘disproportionate redeployment’ of ethnic minority healthcare workers during the pandemic.

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It highlighted evidence given by Professor Philip Banfield, chair of the British Medical Association UK council from July 2022 to June 2025, who ‘told the inquiry that doctors from ethnic minority backgrounds felt they were asked to work in higher-risk areas compared with healthcare workers of white ethnicity’.

Meanwhile, the NHS Race and Health Observatory had published a rapid review referring to a study of 500 UK healthcare workers which ‘indicated that ethnic minority healthcare workers were twice as likely as white healthcare workers to work in areas with Covid-19 cases’.

Among its recommendations, the inquiry said it was ‘paramount’ that future pandemic plans set out how ‘hospital capacity, including beds, space, equipment and staff, is to be scaled up and staff are to be redeployed’.

‘Plans must ensure that there is sufficient workforce capacity and the ability to surge, including the number and type of staff required, recruitment and training provision,’ it added.

A separate recommendation also calls for improved ‘psychological and emotional support for healthcare workers’.

‘The UK government, Scottish Government, Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive, working with healthcare employers and professional bodies, should put in place plans to deliver effective support for healthcare workers at scale from the outset of a pandemic,’ the report said.

‘Plans should cover the nature and level of support that will be provided during and after a pandemic.’

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Responding to the report, chief executive and general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), Professor Nicola Ranger, said: ‘The most important legacy of this inquiry must be to ensure our health and care services are not devastated by the next national emergency.

‘However, the sad reality is that it will be impossible to increase capacity in hospitals while the nursing workforce remains so severely depleted.’