Perhaps flattening one curve has unintentionally steepened another.
In life we need to make decisions. All decisions have consequences, even indecision, which is actually a decision to not decide.
Our MP mentioned she was at the local hospital with her daughter who had an injured wrist (hopefully all ok!)
The sign there said that it was up to an 8 hour wait time. I recall trips there years ago when it was 3 hours – which seemed plenty long enough.
Did all the “flatten the curve”, lockdown and covid precautions simply postpone regular medical demand? And now we have the regular demand plus 2.5 years of excess, pent up demand, to get caught up on.
Perhaps many medical personnel are off ill, more than usual? Or they have left the profession for a variety of reasons? Maybe these are developments given an aging population? A combination of these all, perhaps?
In five years, there will be some neutral studies done and we’ll have a slightly better idea of the cause of these tripling delays (I’ve heard many others say 8 hours is consistent with their experience).
Until then, remember this: Your actions have consequences. And when you try to change the course of nature, profoundly unintended consequences can emerge.