A qualitative analysis of health service problems and the strategies used to manage them in the COVID-19 pandemic: exploiting generic and context-specific approaches

During the pandemic, it was often not possible to rely on mature strategies to frame responses, and more generic, emergent approaches were commonly required when urgent responses were needed. The degree to which specific strategies were ready-to-hand appeared to dictate how much a strategy relied on such generic approaches. The workforce played a pivotal role in enabling emergent responses that required dealing with uncertainties.