Dr. Colm Henry:

The analogies with Covid management come with their own health warning. We configured our whole healthcare service towards Covid and the vaccination programme at the expense of displacing other activity. One of the consequences of the pandemic and the way we had to management it was that a great deal of other activity was delayed and is now presenting at a later stage. For example, there was a drop in cancer registrations of 15% in 2020. This is not to mention the mental health difficulties and scheduled care deferrals. While Covid-19 presented some opportunities for learning, it was dealt with in a singular way at the expense of healthcare in almost every other domain.