It's War
In a certain NHS area bosses are considering the deployment of tented field hospitals. A bit like the one in the old TV series MASH? Well we certainly appear from many angles to be living in a war zone. Worker strikes, instead of air strikes and invasion via the English Channel rather than by hostile military.
On the medical front, I believe we are in this predicament because of the misguided assumption that bigger is better. That's what underlay the closure of small local hospitals that were spread throughout the country. What replaced them are large, specialist hospitals, in a city, but often miles away from a large proportion of the population they are supposed to serve. Yes, keep specialism regional, it's more economic for expensive procedures, but general practice needs to be widely available and in close proximity to all sites of habitation.
Same argument against amalgamated police forces and large schools.
Bigger Is Not Necessarily Better.
Twithay?