Emergency services in most British hospitals have been overwhelmed by a surge in Covid or flu cases. 13% of the beds are occupied by patients suffering from these diseases.
First revision: 06/01/2023 – 12:59
British hospitals are asking people to go to the emergency room if the condition is not serious.
“Emergency services have collapsed, mainly because primary care has collapsed. There are no appointments with family doctors and health centers do not provide comprehensive emergency service even when they open at five or six in the afternoon during their normal hours. That way, patients have no other way to see a doctor unless it is going to the hospital emergency room,” said a nurse who preferred not to be identified.
He works in a London hospital and tells of the dramatic situation in the emergency room, but that’s not the only problem.
“The waiting list right now to see a specialist in a hospital, it depends on the specialty, it can take four, six, eight to nine months. And for a non-urgent operation, for some common surgeries, the waiting list can reach up to two years”, he says.
Although the prime minister has announced that he will provide additional funding to hospitals to address the situation, this second nurse assures that the problem is deeper: “There is a lack of space in National Health Service hospitals for a number of reasons. We have There are over a million vacancies for doctors and nurses. We are short staffed. The Conservative government has cut tens of thousands of beds over the past 10 years. And as the population ages, the demand for health care is rising .
