Covid-19: Refracting Decision-Making Through the Prism of Resource Allocation

Abstract

Medical decision-making has, across the history of the NHS, made a transitional journey from a model characterised by paternalism to one which places emphasis on partnership and patient autonomy. This article assesses the extent to which the circumstances generated by the Covid-19 pandemic affect the mode of critical care decision-making. It observes that clinical judgment influenced by protocols, algorithms and resource constraints do not lend themselves to full identification with either of the two frameworks familiar to the NHS. The unique mode of decision-making engendered can only be understood on its own terms.