Clapping the National Health Service during the 2020 Covid lockdowns may have had “dangerous” consequences and it should not be treated like a “national religion”, says our health ombudsman.

While Rebecca Hilsenrath’s warning is welcome, some of us drew attention to that unquestioning idolatry during the actual pandemic. It was a minority view then. To so much as suggest that the restrictions imposed on us all were oppressive and counter-productive was enough to invite hysterical accusations of effectively condoning murder. From those presumably blind to the irony that the official response placed “Protect the NHS” as a priority slogan ahead of “Save Lives”.

Are the ombudsman’s comments a sign that the country is ready to start confronting its uncomfortable memories of lockdowns, and principally how meekly the majority submitted to such draconian laws? And, equally importantly, acknowledge that perpetual deference to the NHS’s inflexible and monolithic set-up and funding might not be best for our collective health?

Hmm. The new Health Secretary Wes Streeting has commissioned an investigation into the NHS’s performance that will report soon. That study will have served its purpose if it finally provokes a debate that considers adopting the best practices of systems in other European countries.

At present, their far superior outcomes in the treatment of many serious conditions is down to insurance schemes into which they pay for greater choice and speed in being seen by a doctor. They do not regard such payments as an outrageous imposition, any more than they believe the NHS is the envy of the world. Yet even to entertain such notions here risks being howled down as surely as dissenting voices were during lockdowns.

Unless such heresy against the NHS shrine is contemplated, the nation’s health won’t get better.