The emergency department reported that an elderly man had to declare the death of an elderly man on the floor in the waiting room in front of his wife, which “shocked” the public after he passed out due to the hospital running out of beds and carts.
ER Adviser 15 years in the north of England gave I detailed the current state of the National Health Service and invited the Prime Minister to spend the day with them “to see this great human tragedy with my own eyes.”
The medic, who wished to remain anonymous, said ER patients now wait at their hospital until 8 p.m. to be seen and 28 p.m. to get a bed. They said older people often find themselves cooped up in their chairs at night as wards filled with flu patients “remind me of the horrors of Covid.”
A serious flu outbreak and a growing number of Covid cases are putting a huge strain on the system and overwhelming hospitals with patients. Royal College of Emergency Medicine President Dr. Adrian Boyle said up to 500 people could die each week due to delays in emergency care.
“Let me give you a few that might be in that number,” the consultant said. “An 89-year-old man who fell in the bathroom called an ambulance, but could not call for one for nine hours, so the sepsis that led to his fall killed him. If I had seen him in a few hours, this could have been avoided. May be.
“A 54-year-old man with three teenage children who has severe asthma was taken to the emergency room by his 17-year-old son because he was very out of breath. He passed out and died outside from waiting too long, knowing the system was struggling. If he had talked to his family doctor, things might have turned out differently for him. Maybe if he had called earlier. May be.
“The 67-year-old grandmother died of a chest infection, possibly due to the fact that there were not enough people in the department to look after her. If the nurses had not been moved to clean another bed, there could have been more than two nurses per 24 patients. Maybe the intern could check on her sooner. May be.
“A woman with cerebral palsy who died of a chest infection — perhaps if she hadn’t had to wait six hours outside and ten hours to call an ambulance. Maybe if there was a bed in the room. Either she has already been seen, or she has been judged more than once. May be.
“Another friend of mine said she felt like she was in a war zone. It. We remove at least a decade. It’s much worse now.”
The assistant said he arrived at the show at 7 a.m. last week for the holiday shift and was greeted by an overnight team of three young doctors who were “devastated” and “couldn’t do more.”
They said: “A brilliant nurse commented how she has to come to work early to take a shower because her house is too cold because she can’t afford to turn on the heat. She is expected to spend the next 12 hours deciding who is sick and who is not.
“Outside, 12 ambulances were waiting to unload. One contained a youth from a nursing home who had spent more than six hours there. In the waiting room sat people with heart attacks and strokes, elderly people who sat fifteen hours a day in these chairs.
“I went to Resus [the area where people with potentially life-threatening conditions will be taken when they arrive at hospital] Covid reminds me with horror. It’s all the flu. Before my eyes, a young, healthy man with his wife and children died of the flu. “We did everything.” This is what we did then. In addition to the fact that they used to take him to the hospital, they gave him medical advice earlier, they put him to bed earlier. Other than giving him confidence in our ability to take care of him so he can get to the emergency room faster. I don’t know if it will matter. His wife told me that he didn’t want to come to the emergency room because he didn’t want to be a burden.”
Then an independent doctor observed the collapse of the patient in the waiting room.
“You do CPR on the floor. I am compelled to reveal the time of his death to a frightened, frightened member of the public and his wife. On the floor of the waiting room. He was old and weak and did not want to disturb us. We ran out of carts and beds. All over the hospital. It was at 10 am.”
The consultant then went out to talk to the paramedics to see her patients, and she had to tell the paramedic that she couldn’t pass on someone who had a seizure.
“I had to say no – the waiting room is not guarded and there is nowhere to put them. She burst into tears. All of our ambulances are waiting in front of the emergency room. She heard a call on the radio for a team to go to a four-year-old child who was not breathing. She had no one to send. She was in despair. I hugged her and one of her crew members made himself a decoction. I unloaded your patient anyway, and we put her in a wheelchair next to the nurses’ station.
“A father ran into the ward with an unconscious three-year-old child. We brought the least ill patient we had in Resus into the observation room (a quiet room reserved for those who have lost loved ones to spend time with a recently deceased relative) to make room for me to see her.
“I had fellow surgeons who examined their patients in empty pantries where there was a couch. In closets that are still closets because that’s the only way to have privacy.”
At 3:00 p.m., hospital management informed the consultant that their emergency team had done an “excellent job” and should move on.
“I was told that I could not expect extra beds until the next business day. I said it’s not safe. I couldn’t keep it safe. There was nothing more she or anyone else could do,” she said.
The adviser said the crisis was caused by the “slow but steady erosion” of the NHS over the past 15 years, with the removal of nursing grants and unwanted changes to junior and general practitioner contracts, largely due to mass hiring. The NHS in England has over 133,000 vacancies, almost one in ten vacancies.
“I had friends who worked in intensive care and other specialties that day, and my phone was a constant stream of conversations and comparisons. They were driven back to Manchester, Cornwall, London. The stories were the same. We were all just as bad as everyone else.”
The adviser began calling on people to complain to their deputy, the hospital – at least “for the record” – to the media, or “anyone who will listen.”
They acknowledged that there is “definitely room for improvement” in the NHS, but is currently backed by jaded doctors, nurses, paramedics and other healthcare workers. They said they would encourage strikes “to protect the NHS and fight for the system”.
They said, “I am very sorry that this is so. We don’t want this. We want to be able to resolve this for you. But we can’t. Please complain. Please stand up for us. Please try to fight for your NHS.
The consultant, through a local lobbying organization, the Medical Association of Great Britain, invited Rishi Sunak to spend a shift at her hospital.
“Mr. Sunak, please spend the day with me and witness this great human tragedy. I assume that you can afford to take a shower at home before you come. We must not allow the NHS to reach a breaking point and then turn it into a private system that exacerbates health inequalities but improves appearances.”
Co-Chairman of DAUK Dr. Matt Neal said: “The National Health Service as a whole is overwhelmed and all parties need to put aside their campaign strategies and focus on immediate action that can be taken to save lives in the current crisis. The entire system has collapsed, from general practitioners treating record numbers of patients, to emergency services, to our hospitals and healthcare systems.
“We were told that 300 to 500 people die every week due to avoidable delays in NHS emergency relief. Winters are always tough, but NHS veterans report the worst conditions they’ve seen in their entire careers. The whole system requires urgent investment, and we need to act now.”
Source: I News
I’m Raymond Molina, a professional writer and journalist with over 5 years of experience in the media industry. I currently work for 24 News Reporters, where I write for the health section of their news website. In my role, I am responsible for researching and writing stories on current health trends and issues. My articles are often seen as thought-provoking pieces that provide valuable insight into the state of society’s wellbeing.