The United Kingdom's response to the COVID-19 pandemic consists of various measures by the healthcare community, the British and devolved governments, the military and the research sector.

Throughout the pandemic, the British and devolved governments disseminated advice to the public, enacted numerous public health laws including several lockdowns, and provided financial support to several sectors.

The British military were mobilised to assist with the pandemic response and conducted operations within the UK and in its overseas territories. The National Health Services of each nation also took action to free up hospital beds and resources, increase available staff, and establish temporary hospitals, although personal protected equipment shortages were a major issue in the early stages of the outbreak. Increasing capacity for COVID-19 testing took the cooperation of government healthcare agencies, various laboratories, universities and the Royal Mail. The British research sector were involved in COVID-19 vaccine clinical research, drug development and other innovation.

UK and devolved government responses

Military On 19 March 2020, the UK government announced the formation of a military task force, named the COVID Support Force, to assist with the pandemic response. Two military operations, Operation Rescript and Operation Broadshare, were launched and 20,000 military personnel were placed on standby. This military assistance was available to government departments, devolved administrations and to the civil authorities via the military aid to the civil authorities (MACA) mechanism.

National health services response Healthcare in the United Kingdom is a devolved matter, with England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales each having their own systems of publicly funded healthcare, funded by and accountable to separate governments and parliaments. As a result of each country having different policies, laws, and priorities, a variety of differences now exist between these systems.

Equipment

Care homes During the early stages of the pandemic 1,300 elderly Scottish hospital patients were transferred into care homes without receiving a negative coronavirus test result. Many had been infected with the virus and ended up passing it on to other care home residents. Over three thousand care home residents died from coronavirus and Gary Smith, Scotland Secretary of the GMB, said the policy had turned "care homes into morgues." When asked in April 2021 by the BBC if the policy had been a mistake, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: "Looking back on that now, with the knowledge we have now and with the benefit of hindsight, yes."

Personal protective equipment

As early as February 2020 frontline healthcare workers began to raise their concern regarding the UK's preparedness to cope with a large-scale outbreak. On 16 March, primary care magazine Pulse reported doctors were receiving out-of-date PPE that had had its 2016 use-by date covered with a sticker saying "2021". In response, the government offered reassurance that this was safe. Earlier in the month, in response to a survey of Pulse's readership, two out of five GPs reported they still did not have PPE to protect them from coronavirus. Some of these concerns were raised with Johnson during Prime Minister's Questions, to which the Prime Minister replied the UK had "stockpiles" of PPE. The same day, the Doctors' Association UK (DAUK) reported NHS staff felt they were being put at risk due to lack of PPE.

On 22 March, in a letter with 3,963 signatures co-ordinated by the Doctors' Association UK published in The Times, NHS staff asked Johnson to "protect the lives of the life-savers" and resolve what they saw as the "unacceptable" shortage of protective equipment. On 23 March, in an effort to meet demand and due to concerns about the rising number of medics becoming ill after exposure to the virus, the NHS asked DIY stores to donate PPE for use by NHS staff. Frontline healthcare workers raised concerns that they had been forced to source their own PPE from Screwfix. Hancock said there were "challenges" with supplying PPE to NHS staff and said a million masks had been bought that weekend. The following day, the government said there was enough PPE for everyone in the NHS who needed it; this was contradicted by the Royal College of Nursing, the British Medical Association (BMA), and the Doctors' Association UK which warned that without enough PPE, doctors would die.

On 1 April, the government said 390 million pieces of PPE had been distributed to the health service in the past fortnight. The Royal College of Midwives (RCM), BMA and DAUK said the supplies had yet to reach medical staff. The RCM, in a joint statement with unions, including Unite, Unison and the GMB, said the lack of PPE was now 'a crisis within a crisis'.

On 9 April it was reported that protective gowns were set to run out by that weekend in London.

On 10 April the UK Government sent out a document to PPE suppliers informing them that suppliers of certain medical equipment, including protective masks, gloves, and aprons, must be registered with the Care Quality Commission, which regulates all health and social care services in England only. There was not a similar agreement in place between suppliers and Care Inspectorate Wales or the Care Inspectorate of Scotland.Covid-19: Personal Protective Equipment Plan assets.publishing.service.gov.uk. Retrieved 11 May 2020 The Welsh Government advised care home providers that they should order through their local council, while Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price lodged a formal complaint with the European Union over the issue. The manager of two care homes in Gwynedd, Wales, was told by two suppliers that they would only sell to care homes in England. The chief executive of the care home umbrella group Scottish Care said that the UK's four largest PPE suppliers had said they were not distributing to Scotland because their priority was going to be "England, the English NHS and then English social care providers". The UK government reported that it had not instructed any company to prioritise PPE for any nation. Healthcare supplier Gompels' website said at the time that "These restrictions are not something we have decided, they are a criteria[sic] given to us by Public Health England".

Also in April 2020 whistle-blowers in NHS Scotland came forward to reveal that staff were being made to reuse dirty personal protective equipment (PPE) while at work. One nurse told STV, "[When we hear the Scottish Government say supplies are fine] it's not frustrating, it's crushing. It is absolutely crushing. We feel we are being lied to." First Minister Nicola Sturgeon told the Scottish Parliament in July, "At no point within this crisis has Scotland run out of any aspect of PPE. We have worked hard to make sure that supplies are there, we’ve worked hard overcoming challenges that we have faced along the way."

After collating data from over 1500 frontline NHS doctors on ongoing shortages the Doctors' Association UK demanded a public inquiry into the government's failure to adequately procure and supply PPE and healthcare worker deaths. As of August 2020 over 120,000 people had signed a petition for a public inquiry into healthcare worker deaths and PPE and DAUK launched a legal challenge for a judicial review.

A BBC Panorama episode, Has the government failed the NHS?, broadcast on 27 April, said the government had been counting PPE items in a way that artificially inflated the total. Gloves were counted individually, rather than as pairs, for instance, and non-PPE items, such as paper towels and detergent, were included in the figure. The programme also said the government was changing the guidance on what PPE was appropriate for medical staff to wear when treating COVID-19 patients, not according to best protective procedure, but according to the stock available. The programme also said that, in the years before the pandemic, the government had ignored expert advice and failed to stockpile essential items. Due to lack of stock, in May an NHS trust prioritised anti-bacterial ventilator filters for coronavirus patients over others.

In February 2021 Audit Scotland published a report that concluded the Scottish Government had not prepared adequately for a pandemic; noting that recommendations from pandemic planning exercises in 2015, 2016 and 2018 had not been fully implemented. One particular problem it highlighted was that not enough had been done to ensure Scottish hospitals and care homes had enough personal protective equipment. Overall, it concluded that ministers "could have been better prepared to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic". Nicola Sturgeon said there were "lots of lessons to learn".

Ventilators On 16 March, Boris Johnson held a conference call with business leaders and set them the target of delivering 30,000 ventilators in a fortnight; the government also declined to join an emergency European Union scheme to procure ventilators and other emergency equipment like personal protective equipment (PPE) for hospital staff, saying the UK was no longer part of the EU and that this was area in which it was making its own efforts. Existing ventilator stocks stood at 5,900 at the beginning of the outbreak.

On 29 March, the government issued a specification for the "minimally clinically acceptable" manufacture and use of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines.

Staffing In March 2020, the NHS asked retired staff and final year medical students to return to work. Over 20,000 former staff took this up.

Whilst ventilators were procured frontline NHS staff raised concerns about a lack of trained staff to operate them. On 15 March both the BMA and the Doctors' Association UK both raised the alarm that the NHS was short of nearly 43,000 nurses and 10,000 doctors prior to the pandemic. Concerns were also raised that staff were being pressured to return from self-isolation early due to severe short staffing.

On 21 March, the NHS had agreed to use, at cost price, almost the entire private healthcare system, bringing 20,000 medical staff into the national effort.Coronavirus: Thousands of extra hospital beds and staff 21 March 2020, BBC News. Retrieved 16 May 2020

On 24 March, Matt Hancock launched a scheme to recruit 250,000 volunteers to support the NHS through the pandemic. The volunteers would carry out jobs like collecting and deliver shopping, medication or "other essential supplies" for people in isolation; transporting equipment and medication between NHS services; transporting medically fit patients and providing telephone support to people at risk of loneliness because of self-isolation. The target was surpassed in 24 hours and was raised to 750,000. The scheme was paused on 29 March after the new target was reached.

Military personnel from the newly formed COVID Support Force helped staff NHS Nightingale hospitals, mobile test centres and some ambulance services.

Temporary critical care hospitals

In Northern Ireland capacity was upgraded at Belfast City Hospital, while in Scotland, NHS Louisa Jordan was established in Glasgow by NHS Scotland.

NHS England established temporary "Nightingale" hospitals in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Harrogate. The Dragon's Heart Hospital was set up at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. Military personnel from the COVID Support Force assisted with the construction and subsequent staffing.

Do Not Resuscitate orders