Storytelling for Social Health

I was working as a consultant paediatrician in the emergency department of a large children's hospital in the Northwest of England during the COVID-19 pandemic.When the general public began to seek healthcare in person again after the various lockdowns, there were some notable differences.It wasn't just what the patients were coming in with, such as delayed presentations of diabetes, cancers, and all forms of neglect and abuse.It wasn't just that we were seeing an exponential increase in non-specific symptoms with no clear organic cause.It was also as if society had had an acute personality change, with increased anger, sadness, and despondence.Users that were previously co-operative become more demanding, and incivility and abuse against frontline staff rose.We received a significant increase in the number of complaints about our clinical service.Patients and families seemed more confused, more entitled, and less grateful.