In some A&E departments, teams are faced with 13 hour wait times (Picture: Tharanika Ahillan)
Our A&Es aren’t safe. They are distinctly unsafe – patients just don’t realise it.
As a junior doctor, it doesn’t give me any pleasure telling you this, but it’s the truth.
When I read how more than 250 needless deaths occur each week because of long A&E wait times, I wasn’t shocked.
Similarly, it feels like the damning findings from Lord Darzi’s report released today were inevitable. It found that the NHS is in a ‘critical condition’ and is falling short of targets for cancer, A&E and hospital treatments, which has contributed to poor survival rates for cancer and heart disease.
Lord Darzi said: ‘Although I have worked in the NHS for more than 30 years, I have been shocked by what I have found during this investigation – not just in the health service, but in the state of the nation’s health’.
As a junior doctor, this is my reality day in, day out.
Source:: Metro
