# 439
In an opinion piece in the Sunday Times, written by Dr. Andrew Lawson of Imperial College, London, we are once again presented with a stark scenario of too few resources being allocated across too many patients during a pandemic.
Dr. Lawson pulls no punches.
If a true pandemic of bird flu hits these shores then our notions of what we can expect from the National Health Service will have to change. Some people will have to be denied potentially life-saving treatment: there simply will not be enough beds.
Managing such a pandemic is unimaginable. While it is possible to work out what will happen if a bomb goes off in central London — we can empty intensive care units, mobilise extra staff and stop elective work — what we cannot plan for is 200,000 extra patients who need a life support machine.
Dr. Lawson also reminds us that all of this may prove academic if healthcare workers find that they have no protective garments (PPE's), and refuse to work.
But if we do not have enough masks to protect staff dealing with infected patients, then do the staff have a moral duty to turn up for work and get infected themselves? It may be that they go to work but only once — who will want to return home and potentially infect their own family?
And there are legal considerations involved too, as is pointed out.
Another concern is the legal position of staff who refuse treatment. In the absence of any measures put in place to protect them, one can imagine a raft of legal actions being taken out against them.
A pandemic would create immense problems at nearly every turn, particularly in the healthcare field. Dr. Lawson raises some very interesting, and disturbing questions, and this article is worth your time to read, and to think about.
