The overload in British emergency medicine is costing lives: Doctors estimate that between 300 and 500 people die every week. An end to the crisis is not in sight.
According to estimates by associations, 300 to 500 people die every week in Great Britain because they are not treated in a timely or appropriate manner in the event of an emergency. The vice-president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, Ian Higginson, confirmed the figures published over the weekend on BBC television on Monday. He dismissed the suggestion that the difficulties were temporary: “When you’re there, you know it’s a long-term problem, not just a short-term one.”
One in five patients picked up by an ambulance in England last week took more than an hour to get to the emergency room. Tens of thousands of patients had to wait more than 12 hours to be treated in the emergency room. According to the NHS, in November alone almost 38,000 people had to wait more than twelve hours in the emergency room before they were transferred to a hospital ward – three and a half times as many as in the previous year.
Nurses Association: People are dying because of political decisions
The British Medical Association, a federation of nurses, joined the alarming statements on Monday. “It’s not true that the country doesn’t have the resources to fix this mess,” said its chairman, Phil Banfield. “It’s a political decision and patients are dying needlessly because of that decision.” Banfield described the current situation as “unsustainable” and called for “immediate” action by the government.
The British government blames the consequences of the corona pandemic and the flu wave for the current situation and assures that it wants to do more for hospitals. In his New Year’s greetings, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak named the NHS as one of his priorities.
Conservative government rejects wage increase despite inflation
The crisis in the British health system NHS, which is mainly financed by taxpayers’ money, is an ongoing topic in Great Britain. The free NHS has suffered from harsh austerity measures for more than a decade. In winter it is usually exacerbated by colds and strikes. This year there is an above-average number of influenza cases that have to be treated in hospital. The number of corona patients in clinics is currently increasing again sharply.
Recently there have been several strikes by healthcare workers, including nursing staff and emergency services. They wanted to increase pressure on the government to raise wages and improve working conditions. The Conservative government is refusing wage increases despite record inflation of more than 10 percent.
In addition to underfunding, the reason for the difficulties is the lack of staff, which was exacerbated by Brexit, among other things. According to the organization NHS Poviders, there are 133,000 vacancies in the UK healthcare sector.
Source: Stern
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