This adaptability has come at an enormous cost, however.
“I’m horrified at the number of hospitals that have just given up, treating everybody else,” said prof Dalgleish.
He continued: “We are now going to wreak a whirlwind of people who have not had their cancers diagnosed and treated early – cardiac procedures etc. and attention to mental health.
“This has just built up and it’s going to be an enormous whirlwind, tsunami of ill health hitting the NHS.”