Examining the UK Covid-19 mortality paradox: Pandemic preparedness, healthcare expenditure and the nursing workforce

Aim To examine the UK pandemic preparedness in light of health expenditure, nursing workforce, and mortality rates in and relation to nursing leadership.

Background The Global Health Security Index categorised the preparedness of 195 countries to face a biological threat on a variety of measures, producing an overall score. The United States of America and the United Kingdom were ranked 1st and 2nd most prepared in 2019.

Method A cross-nation comparison of the top-36 countries ranked by Global Health Security score using a variety of online sources, including key data about each nation’s expenditure on health and the nursing workforce, and compared these with mortality data for COVID-19.

Results The extent of a countries pandemic preparedness, expenditure on healthcare and magnitude of the nursing workforce does not appear to impact mortality rates at this stage of the pandemic which is something of a paradox.

Conclusion It is important that arrangements for dealing with future global pandemics involve a range of agencies and experts in the field, including nurse leaders.

Implications for Nursing To achieve the best outcomes for patients, nurse leaders should be involved in policy forums at all levels of government to ensure nurses can influence health policy.