The “Knock-on” Effects of COVID-19 on Healthcare Services

This chapter systemically examines the “knock-on” effects of COVID-19 on healthcare service provision in Argentina, Ireland, and South Africa. As pandemic preparedness and response took central priority, healthcare systems were rapidly reorganised-with widescale staff and resource redeployment to the COVID-19 effort-whilst routine services became part-time or were temporarily phased out. Primary care practitioners, nurses and intensive, “high care”, and emergency specialists assumed responsibility for COVID-19 lives and deaths. Essential care and chronic care service adaptations often barely met minimum needs and were frequently only sustained by telemedicine. As the pandemic’s first wave cycled into the second and third, routine patient services urgently needed to be provided within the context of the pandemic. Improved protocols, triage systems, and infection control enabled healthcare workers (HCWs) to gain some control over the pandemic whilst simultaneously providing population-level care. However, the unintended effects of the first wave on HCWs, patients, and public health are only just beginning to be counted.