what use is a phone/video consultation? The doc cant observe the patient, listen to his chest, or check his abdomen, observe his demeanour. So vital diagnostic tools are lost.Winter routinely causes 30k excess deaths (average 39k over 5 years, defined as compared with previous/following quarter) so max 20k deaths can be attributed to flu
https://fullfact.org/online/Excess-winter-deaths-UK/
I presume by "closed" you mean "not offering face to face GP appointments?"
I doubt my GP would have diagnosed my burst appendix via video link (standard test is to press lower right abdomen, and let go suddenly.) cant do that without the patient there. I could have ended up at A+E 6 hours later with sepsis.