Averting the next NHS Crisis

The COVID Inquiry has seen the need to protect the NHS as a primary driver for lockdowns - averting the next NHS Crisis

Mr O’Connor, in questions to Helen McNamara, former Deputy Cabinet Secretary, said: “As we've heard, the lockdown was caused by an understanding that there was a need to prevent the NHS being overwhelmed.”

So, if we don’t want to use lockdown again, we surely need sufficient hospital beds with flexibility over their use. But how many is “sufficient”?

In 2…