I AM a junior doctor at the Worcestershire Royal Hospital where, on November 27, we faced tragedy in our overwhelmed A&E department.
Our understaffed and underfunded hospital was so full of patients that we had 34 ambulances trapped in queues outside the emergency department who were unable to
drop off their sick patients.
Through no fault of the paramedics (I can only imagine what they were feeling) one patient deteriorated so severely as he waited for more than an hour to come into A&E that, shortly after being moved from an ambulance to a trolley in a packed corridor, his heart stopped and he died.
Mr Johnson, can you please try and imagine for one moment working as an NHS paramedic, doctor or nurse in conditions so overstretched that 34 ambulances have to endure dangerous queues and a patient dies on a trolley as a result.
Just stop for a moment – please – and think of the human consequences of your underfunding of the NHS.
The brilliant doctors, nurses and paramedics involved in the patient’s care did everything possible to save his life – but in emergency medicine time is everything.
Prime Minister, you failed this patient and your negligence contributed to their death.
I’m sure everyone involved in the patient’s care has apologised to their family for these tragic circumstances. But Mr Johnson, if we have apologised, when will you?
Mr Johnson, you and your party have had nearly a decade to leave the health service in a better state than which you found it. By every objective metric, the Conservative Party has failed.
We see this in our NHS hospitals every single day. Nationwide we are 10,000 doctors short, 40,000 nurses short, A&E waiting times are the absolute worst in NHS history, you have shut down too many district hospitals, you have left us with too few hospital beds.
Social care is a mess and mental health care is often inaccessible.
If you care about fixing this stop coming into our hospitals for unannounced photo ops because you are scared of us asking you tough questions – and start listening to medical experts.
We don’t need more privatisation from American companies. We don’t need more expensive consultants and middle management.
We need more beds, more doctors, more nurses, a social care system that isn’t gutted, and a hell of a lot more funding.”
Let me be clear: I love Worcestershire Royal Hospital. It is a very safe hospital and I’m sick and tired of my hospital taking the blame when this patient’s death is on your shoulders, not on our brilliant A&E nurses and doctors or the extraordinary paramedics of the West Midlands Ambulance Service.
Mr Johnson, you have failed our brilliant NHS staff nationwide who have been traumatised by your negligence. Because the safety of our patients has now been threatened to such a significant degree, I am exercising my right as a whistleblower in clause 29 of my contract to speak out now because this has happened too many times in hospitals across the country. The public has a right to know why.
Mr Johnson, the NHS is no longer safe in your hands. Your negligence and that of your party over the last decade has contributed to this patient’s death and, if you were a junior doctor like me, your license would now be revoked.
Dr Andrew Meyerson is a junior doctor proudly working at Worcestershire Royal Hospital. His views are entirely his own and he does not represent or speak for NHS England or the Worcestershire Royal Hospital.
