Haemorrhaging of the nation’s health service has now started A drowning person closes off blood oxygen supplies to their extremities in a bid to survive. So it is with health systems struggling to cope 9 January 2021 • 6:06pm A nurse wearing PPE works on a patient in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit) in St George's Hospital in Tooting, south-west London Credit: PA The NHS will not all of a sudden topple over, says a seasoned observer. It’s not what happens to overstretched health systems, not least a national service which can, for a time at least, transfer weight from one limb to another. Much more likely is that it will gradually “bleed out” over a period of a month or more if large parts become overwhelmed.