The COVID-19 pandemic affected healthcare systems worldwide, including the National Health Service (NHS). It drastically changed the practice and delivery of healthcare and laid bare longstanding structural flaws. It also brought a time of innovation and digitalisation and renewed appreciation of the role of public health. This paper offers a thematic summary of a debate held in December 2021 by the University of Edinburgh School of Medicine. It featured a multi-specialty panel of doctors and patient representative discussing the likely impact of the pandemic on the future of NHS. It serves as a reflection point on the pressures the NHS has faced since and their likely genesis at a time when the impact of the pandemic on staff risks being forgotten.