Star comment: Pandemic pouring pressure on NHS
NHS staff are demoralised and frustrated.
The political decision to prioritise the economy and the nation’s mental wellbeing has been taken.
If we can survive Christmas and New Year with lockdown-esque restrictions, it’s difficult to conceive of their re-introduction at a later stage.
The numbers are against the Prime Minister following scientific recommendations to do just that; his own backbenchers will revolt.
Yet we ought to consider the effects of that and the strain that the NHS is under. While the beloved health service traditionally finds itself struggling to meet demand at New Year and during January, things have rarely been this bad. It is not just hospitals who are out on a limb.
Ambulance staff are demoralised and frustrated that they cannot get to patients quicker. They are caught up in the perfect storm of beds being full, hospital staff being under pressure because of Covid and 999 calls continuing to increase.
We should thank the staff who are out there dealing with patients or taking the 999 calls and understand they are doing their best. Abuse is totally unacceptable.
There is also a fundamental issue in the capacity of our hospitals in winter. Ministers and the NHS need to look at the whole issue. When we compare our service to those in some parts of Europe, we are providing a service that is insufficient.
Winter pressures aren’t just here because of Covid, but the pandemic has put added pressure on.
Whether it needs more money for the emergency 999 service, extra resources to deal with bed blocking or an expansion of drop-in minor injuries units, something has to be done.
We live in a technological era. The manner in which technology is changing our lives is just as profound as the way in which new machinery changed the world during the Industrial Revolution.
Not all new inventions will make the grade. We might not want smart glasses that capture photographs when we can do that on our smartphones; but then again, smartphones weren’t with us 30 years ago and now they are ubiquitous.
It is difficult to know what new gadgets will catch on and which ones, like supersonic flight or Clive Sinclair’s C5 tricycle, won’t last the course.
There is no shortage of excitement, however, and it may be that smart glasses and the Metaverse actually add much to society. Both are clever - and Inspector Gadget would approve – though for some the jury is out on whether they actually improve our lives.
