The latest updates as the former boss of NHS England gives evidence to the COVID inquiry.
Next, the inquiry's lawyer turns to a section of Boris Johnson's witness statement in which he writes that it was 'very frustrating' to be forced into a lockdown due to the problem of 'bed blocking'.
'The ex-NHS chief Sir Simon Stevens rejects the characterisation, however, that 'bed blocking' forced lockdown decisions.He says: 'We and indeed he were being told that if action was not taken on reducing the spread of coronavirus, there wouldn’t be 30,000 hospital inpatients, there would be maybe 200,000 or 800,000 hospital inpatients.'So you can't say that you would be able to deal with 200,000 or 800,000 inpatients by reference to 30,000 blocked beds.
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