Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences, College of Medical and Dental Sciences, Medical School, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Wolfson Drive Birmingham B15 2TT, UK.
Department of Cardiology, University Heart and Vascular Center, UKE Hamburg, Martinistraße 52, Gebäude Ost 70, 20246 Hamburg, Germany.
Eur Heart J Qual Care Clin Outcomes. 2020 Jul 1;6(3):201-203. doi: 10.1093/ehjqcco/qcaa036.
Healthcare systems are faced with unique challenges during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. This viewpoint compares the response to the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK and in Germany. Despite being two large European countries of comparable size with good healthcare systems and similar patterns of exposure to Covid-19, Covid-19 related deaths in the UK currently far outnumber those in Germany. This has several reasons, but two explanations stick out: 1. lower long-term investment into healthcare in the UK rendered the NHS more vulnerable to Covid-19; 2. the existence of a well-governed decentralised and partially redundant organisation of healthcare increased resilience in Germany' s healthcare systems, enhancing the ability to adapt in response to unexpected challenges to healthcare. The response to the current pandemic also illustrates the power and the necessity to learn from each other through transparent communication of successes and mistakes.
在持续的新冠疫情期间，医疗保健系统面临着独特的挑战。本文观点比较了英国和德国应对新冠疫情的情况。尽管英国和德国都是拥有良好医疗保健系统且面临相似新冠暴露模式的大型欧洲国家，但目前英国的新冠相关死亡人数远远超过德国。这有几个原因，但有两个解释比较突出：1. 英国对医疗保健的长期投资较低，使 NHS 更容易受到新冠病毒的影响；2. 存在管理良好的去中心化和部分冗余的医疗保健组织，增强了德国医疗保健系统的弹性，提高了应对医疗保健意外挑战的适应能力。应对当前大流行也说明了通过成功和错误的透明沟通相互学习的力量和必要性。
