In the largely secular United Kingdom, the National Health Service (NHS) is often as close as many get to the national religion.  During the coronavirus pandemic, the affection felt towards the NHS has been evident, with drawings adorning windows, and a weekly celebration of the service that sees citizens clapping and cheering from their homes.

A recent paper from  City University, London, suggests the service is unlikely to emerge from the pandemic unscathed, however.  The paper suggests that the allocation of healthcare resources in Britain is largely a question of justice, but that the pandemic has altered how those resources are allocated.

The author argues that even before the coronavirus pandemic, the resources available to the NHS were struggling to keep pace with the growing demand for it, and the additional burden imposed by the virus has put at jeopardy the egalitarian principles of the service.

Free for all

“Even though the NHS remains publicly funded, the provision of services is now ranking the needs of patients that are directly or indirectly affected by the virus rather than providing equal access to treatment for all,” the author says. “Going back to the egalitarian model that was already under strain prior to the advent of COVID-19 will be practicably impossible, even if current utilitarian emergency policies are suspended. The NHS will nonetheless need to first address the delays in treatment that occurred during the time of the pandemic. Second, the public health strategy will have to be reassessed to prepare for a potential future incident of a similar scale and to learn the lessons from the current episode.”

The NHS is widely loved across the UK, and there will undoubtedly be a strong desire among the public for things to return to normal as quickly as possible.  The paper provides a useful reminder that this is by no means guaranteed, and the scars of the pandemic may leave a lasting impression on a much loved institution.