In order to support above-and-beyond needs ushered in by a worldwide pandemic:

– delivering medicines from pharmacies;

– driving patients to appointments;

– bringing them home from hospital;

– or making regular phone calls to check on people isolating at home.

They don't need volunteers to merely function, but then we both know there was no honest intent behind your comment in the first place.

"The American Hospital Association, American Medical Association and American Nurses Association asked Congress on Thursday to allocate $100 billion to help health-care personnel and providers, including physicians, nurses and hospitals, respond to the new coronavirus, according to a letter on the hospital association’s website."

(https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-ba...)

Not to function - but it certainly helps at the moment when the majority of the world is in crisis mode.

The UK health service is one of the few things I’m actually still proud of about the UK.

During my brief visit to the Midlands many years ago, the U.K. seems to have a community cohesion that we don’t have much in the US (many rescue services are non profit and operate exclusively with volunteers for example). They will benefit from it through efforts such as this.

To be fair, all health systems seem to currently be relying on charity to deal with this crises.