Tired NHS heroes have been seen in tears in hospital car parks after losing patients during shifts, The Mirror reports. This news comes as a junior A&E doctor said Conservative politicians should be jailed for wilful neglect.
Up to 500 people a week are dying because of delays in emergency care with demand reaching crippling levels, with a lack of beds, ambulance queues and difficulties filling staff vacancies, with a GP comparing surgeries to "conveyor belts" because of these issues.
Junior doctor Andrew Meyerson, 40, spoke of the tough emotions the NHS's struggle invokes on its employees: "My colleagues cry in the car park, shell-shocked, haunted by the substandard care they have been forced to deliver. Our resuscitation area is full. There are too many cardiac arrests.
“Urgent blue light ambulances have to wait to be checked in and assessed because we don’t have the staff or beds to admit them. Patients become increasingly unwell and collapse in the waiting room.
"Our team saved many lives this week. But we also lost too many.
“Reminding ourselves that none of this is our fault gives us little solace. This government is to blame, but we’re the ones who have to break bad news to patient’s families. The ones who have to wear this moral injury home every day.”
Dr Meyerson, a member of campaign group EveryDoctor, added: “Nearly 500 people a week are now dying because of delays accessing emergency care.
"A government that allows that to happen in the sixth wealthiest country on the planet deserves to be in prison. Waiting lists are 7.2 million people long, the worst in NHS history. The list was already 5 million before Covid, so Rishi Sunak can’t blame the pandemic.
“Our winter crisis is now an all-seasons crisis. And the arsonists in government who lit the fire are refusing to do anything to put it out.”
Massively risen cases of flu and Covid, along with strep A have only intensified the pressure. A 130,000 staffing black hole, including local surgeries, combined with NHS absences linked to Covid rising by 50% in December alone has made the difficulties untenable.
This is despite the Government's announcement in February 2020 that there would be a drive to recruit 6,000 more GPs by 2024. Analysis from the British Medical Association shows the equivalent of 1,973 fewer fully-qualified full-time GPs than in 2015. Each NHS doctor now looks after 2,270 patients - a 17% increase from 2015.
Dr Shabina Qayyum is responsible for 2,375 patients, and assesses up to 50 people in a shift at her East Anglia surgery, calling it "conveyor belt" medicine. She said: “We have 19,000 patients and eight doctors. The clinic is like a whirlwind. It’s an impossible task.
"I might be speaking to one ill patient and get an instant message from a nurse that an elderly patient with an ulcer must be seen. At the same time there could be a call from reception that a paramedic with a poorly patient needs to speak to me. Managing all that at once can be extremely difficult.
"The stress has been so incredible. It’s alright for Rishi Sunak to make promises. All there has been are false ones.”
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