Andrew Dickens Afternoons

It started on Friday.First I saw my neighbour struggling down the street on crutches. He'd had a knee operation at a private hospital.It was the last operation they did before lockdown he said. Then he added that the hospital was preparing itself for any overflow from the public system in the event of a surge of Covid cases. That's a worry I thought.Later that night the tweets and social media posts from friends in the health system started.Auckland and Counties Manukau were bracing for an increase in cases.Staff were being sought from Waikato DHB.Covid cases amongst the staff combined with a rise in hospitalisation was starting to stress the system.It was a reminder what all our battles against Covid are about. Preventing a meltdown in healthcare.We have 500 odd cases so far and 34 hospitalisations. Thats a conversion rate of around 7 per cent. Added to that the fact that our health system was at capacity even before an outbreak of Covid then we sit in a perilous place where the only option was lockdown. Or