The low down
For the public, former Tory chancellor Nigel Lawson once observed, the National Health Service is the closest thing the country has to a religion. And the NHS is, indeed, many things to many people – from Europe’s single largest employer to a fiercely contested political battlefield. It is also under-resourced and, in dealing with Covid-19, has come close to breaking point. That cocktail of public devotion and periodic cash crises makes for a complex relationship between error and responsibility. Political leaders rail against the funds spent on medical negligence cases. Yet there is scant evidence of lawyers or clients ‘taking advantage’ of the pandemic to bring claims against the Covid-battered NHS. And if ‘no-fault’ compensation replaced legal battles, the ultimate bill would be higher.