but covid can apply pressure to that capacity. here's the chief executive of nhs england. i think we are in for a tough winter. if we've got covid patients in our beds, obviously, that has an impact on how many elective patients can be in those same beds. but the government is offering reassurances. it says the nhs has the ability to manage and it is not under unsustainable pressure. and as we consider these differing analyses, here is a word of caution on being too definitive from professor paul hunter. at the moment, it's not clear whether what we're seeing at the moment will continue to increase as we move towards christmas or, as some modellers have suggested, will peak sometime this month and then start to decline. what is more certain is that we are seeing two relatively clear schools of thought. there is the uk government, with its focus on the vaccine. ever since our phenomenal vaccine programme began last winter, we have been in a race, a race between the vaccine and the virus. and although we are ahead in