The pandemic has exposed the fact that Britain’s healthcare system does not have sufficient capacity
Record numbers of Omicron-driven infections are turning into rapidly rising numbers of Covid patients in hospital. Staff absences, which have now reached 80,000 a day, are severely hampering the response. All on top of very high demand for non-Covid care during the most pressured four weeks in the NHS calendar.
There is good news. The vaccines are working. The surge of seriously ill older people the NHS saw last January, and feared so much this time, has not yet materialised. London, the original UK epicentre of Omicron, looks like it is now stabilising.
