NHS hospital capacity during covid-19: overstretched staff, space, systems, and stuff
Kevin Fong, Charlotte Summers, and Tim Cook unpick arguments that the NHS was not overwhelmed by covid-19, highlighting its legacy effects on healthcare and lessons for future health crises During the UK’s covid-19 inquiry we have heard that “there was an inbuilt reluctance to accept that it was possible to get to a point where the NHS was overwhelmed” and that NHS capacity was regarded as “elastic.”1 The question of whether the NHS was overwhelmed during the covid-19 pandemic has become an important point of debate. Some commentators continue to suggest that the NHS prepared for a s...