# 4405
An interesting read this morning from This Is Nottingham concerning post-pandemic wave assessments made by a variety of practitioners and medical professionals from the Nottingham, UK region.
Chris Locke, chief executive of the Notts Local Medical Committee (LMC), believes that the NHS (National Health Service) `just coped’ with the pandemic.
Had it been much more severe, he states, `many services would have collapsed under the strain’.
While this article is UK-centric, many of the difficulties discussed in this article would apply to other countries as well.
As bad as it was, we collectively dodged a bullet with this pandemic. It could have been a lot worse.
This is a long article, an informal post-mortem if you will, on the NHS response. An official assessment is underway, and is expected in May.
I’ve just reproduced the opening paragraphs. Follow the links to read it in its entirety.
NHS 'just coped' with flu pandemic
Friday, March 05, 2010, 11:14
A LEADING doctor has revealed local health services "would have collapsed under the strain" if the swine flu pandemic had been more widespread.
Local NHS officials expected hospitals, phone lines and GP services to be swamped after the World Health Organisation declared a swine flu pandemic last June.
But the disease didn't take hold as quickly or as widely as expected.
Chris Locke, chief executive of the Notts Local Medical Committee (LMC), has said health services across county would not have been able to cope if the threat had fully materialised.
He said: "Despite several years of preparation, the NHS only just managed to cope with this pandemic.
"If it had turned out to be as bad as predicted, many services would have collapsed under the strain.
"Emergency departments, out-of-hours services, GP practices and community staff were all overstretched at certain times."
The LMC, which represents GPs, says the Government made mistakes in the way it responded to the pandemic.
