This is the direct and necessary result of socialized medicine. This is the kind of medical care we will have in the US if we also head down that path. Via the BBC:
The warning has been made in a letter to the prime minister signed by 68 senior A&E doctors spelling out the danger patients are facing this winter.
It comes as reports have emerged of people being left for hours on trolleys in corridors and stuck in ambulances as A&E teams struggle.
Meanwhile, hospital bosses have warned they have run out of beds.
Last week there was a point when 133 out of 137 hospital trusts had an unsafe number of patients on their wards, NHS records show.
The letter from doctors in England and Wales sets out some of the impact of this pressure.
It says:
- Patients are having to sleep in make-shift wards set up in side-rooms
- Trolley waits of up to 12 hours are being routinely seen as staff struggle to find free beds
- Thousands of patients are left stuck in the back of ambulances waiting for A&E staff to take them in
- Over 120 patients a day are being managed in corridors in some places, some dying prematurely
The letter has been sent on the day it has been revealed that England’s A&Es missed their four-hour waiting time target by a record margin in December – over 300,000 patients waited longer than they should.
Just 85.07% of patients were seen in four hours – well below the 95% target – and marginally worse than the previous low in January 2017.
Chris Hopson, of NHS Providers, said hospitals were unsafe and over-crowded, and the NHS was at a “watershed moment”, requiring long-term funding.