Introduction

Around the world, the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted radical transformations in health policy and the organisation of health and care services. In many countries, policymakers have rushed to re-organise care services to meet the ‘surge demand’ and ‘waves’ of COVID-19 infection and disease. Such strategies signal important and sweeping changes in the organisation of both ‘COVID’ and ‘non-COVID’ care, whilst asking more fundamental questions about the long-term organisation of care ‘after COVID’. This includes, for example, unprecedented patterns and levels of funding; new ways of governing, managing and leading services; and the reconfiguration of clinical teams and frontline care delivery. In some contexts, COVID-19 has exposed the fragilities and vulnerabilities of long held ways of organising care, especially where services operate at the very brink of resource constraints or at near full capacity. In others, it has shown how services are organised to be more resilient and adaptive to unanticipated pressures and surge demand. This introductory chapter reviews the themes of the edited collection in terms of policy learning, governance in hospital organisations, professions and professionalism, technologies and governmentalities, and organisational responses to COVID-19.