E SmithColleague yesterday: "Oh, look, we're no longer in a 'critical incident'. Now we're just on black alert or 'Opel 4', whatever that means".
All that critical incidents have done is make black alerts seem less bad. Once upon a time, red alert was the worst, so they had to introduce black alerts. Now critical incidents have made the constant black alerts seem less critical.
None of it seems to make any difference to the patients on trolleys or the staff struggling alone.