{"id":337747,"date":"2026-03-19T17:23:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T17:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/337747\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T17:23:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T17:23:09","slug":"nhs-came-close-to-collapse-during-covid-and-patients-were-failed-inquiry-finds-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/337747\/","title":{"rendered":"NHS came close to collapse during Covid and patients were failed, inquiry finds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Look past the report&#8217;s strong languagepublished at 13:52 GMT<\/p>\n<p>13:52 GMT<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-5adjh7-Contributor etflsgg2\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/c8556895-a77b-47ad-abc2-b10aced05a28.jpg.webp.webp\" width=\"64\" height=\"64\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Nick Triggle<br \/>Health correspondent<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">An NHS close to collapse, staff working in war zones and patients harmed by not getting the care they needed, this report \u2013 the third of 10 the inquiry will publish \u2013 uses strong language to describe what happened.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But perhaps the most illuminating and thought-provoking parts of the report, which runs to over 400 pages, are elsewhere.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The slogan Stay Home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives was strong, but may have deterred people without Covid from seeking help \u2013 and in itself may have caused harm.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Shielding the vulnerable to protect them from Covid was so damaging emotionally many have struggled to return to their previous lives.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Restrictions on visitors, which meant people died alone and women faced childbirth without their partners, were too tough.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">There were trade-offs and difficult balances that were struck when it came to the NHS \u2013 did the government go too far?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Look past the report&#8217;s strong languagepublished at 13:52 GMT 13:52 GMT Nick TriggleHealth correspondent An NHS close to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337401,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[134,527,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-337747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}