The Thin End

Many people will be affected COVID-19 beyond those directly infected by it.  Lives will be lost as a result of the efforts to save lives from the virus.  This is a sad reality of the response to the pandemic. As we focus on the potential loss of life through the virus, we need also to consider why so many others have had to put off possible life-saving treatments, or had operations cancelled. We must also consider that the long term impact of the economic consequences will be considerable. The problems we face are due to a decade of austerity, which made preparations for a pandemic almost impossible to achieve. Of course, resources are always going to be stretched in such circumstances.   But it would be wrong to assume that such a pandemic was unforeseen.   On the contrary, all NHS Trusts have made some contingency plans for such a virus. It would be easy enough to imagine that a decade of underfunding of the NHS has had no significant impact.  Bu...