The NHS had entered the pandemic with about 40,000 nursing and midwifery vacancies in England, Dame Ruth said.
And she criticised a “catastrophic decision”, in 2015, to replace the grant or bursary paid to student midwives and nurses with loans.
It had led to reduction of about 5,000 trainees in England by 2020, Dame Ruth said, which “would have made a difference” in the pandemic.
“There would have been less burnout – there would have been less psychological impact,” she said.
Intensive-care units came under such pressure during Covid specialist critical-care nurses were responsible for up to six patients each instead of the usual one-to-one ratio.
And Dame Ruth accepted that had affected the care patients received, saying: “It was not where we wanted to go… and I know there have been consequences because of it.”
Blanket do-not-resuscitate orders had appeared to have been added to some patients’ records based on either their age or a pre-existing condition such as autism or a learning disability, she told the inquiry, which had been “completely wrong”.
