Following news the UK now has the highest number of coronavirus deaths in Europe, Society for Acute Medicine President Dr Susan Crossland and past president Dr Nick Scriven commented:
“The different ways the cause of death is recorded across Europe (and the US) does make this new data less useful as a comparison.
“However, we do feel that the repeated changes in how data is being calculated does lead to confusion and lessens any messages associated with them. It could easily cause general scepticism around any further figures.
“As a Society we are in agreement that the testing strategy employed to date has seemed haphazard in delivering what it could have and has certainly not helped the situation in the way it has been changed.
“The way the figures were apparently “massaged’ on April 30 to hit an arbitrary and self-imposed target helped no one.
“We urgently need the strategy for track and tracing to be openly explained to everyone to make certain any concerns are fully dealt with so they can be implemented as soon as they are needed without endless revision.”