“ The Covid-19 emergency put immense pressure on health services globally and across the UK. When hospital admissions for Covid-19 started to increase sharply earlier this year, and many feared that services would be overwhelmed, it was understandable that the NHS would repurpose activity and redeploy staff to deal with the crisis. During the early stages of lockdown, the often-repeated slogan “Stay at home, Protect the NHS, Save lives” was proving “successful” as the streets grew quieter and more people worked from home. However, the worry for many in the healthcare workforce was that the message was almost too “successful”, as it meant that patients with other potentially life-threatening illnesses were staying away from their GP or hospital for fear of catching the virus.”

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