UNIONS and campaigners have urged the government to invest in the NHS as a new report warns of a “triple whammy” of staff exhaustion, treatment backlogs and a second wave of Covid-19.

The NHS Confederation says that the disruption caused by the pandemic must lead to a transformation of the health service and urged more government funding to restore services, cover rising demand and tackle health inequalities.

Its NHS Reset report warns that the service is dealing with local outbreaks and a second surge of cases alongside a “huge backlog” of people needing care, with staff exhausted and capacity reduced due to infection-control measures.