Doctor warns patients are dying in A&E because the NHS is 'broken'

02 January 2023 , 22:57

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A queue of ambulances line up outside Royal Stoke University Hospital on New Year's Eve (Image: Sky News)

A doctor says patients are dying while waiting two to three days in A&E because the NHS is “broken”.

A report posted online, claiming to be from a registrar with a decade of experience on the NHS front line, told of “the first time ever that I cried in my car after a shift”.

The account added: “I was on nights over the New Years period, but New Year was not the issue, every shift is like this now.”

It said that five years ago there were typically 50 patients on handover at night, but now it is usually 180.

The report, posted by a fellow medic, claimed between 60% and 70% of patients were waiting 10 hours to be seen.

Baby boy has spent his life in hospital as doctors are 'scared' to discharge him

A report posted online claimed between 60% and 70% of patients were waiting 10 hours to be seen (Getty Images)

It added: “Last night 60% of the patients in the emergency department had been there for more than 12 hours, some for more than 40.”

It told of “87-year-olds coming in after falls sitting in chairs for 18 hours... Other elderly patients lying in their own urine for hours because there’s no staff, or even room to change them into something dry”. The account told of patients lying on the floor due to a lack of chairs.

It said: “People are actually dying. People who’ve been in the emergency department for two to three days.”

Telling of overstretched staff, it said: “There’s fewer nurses every week, because why would you put yourself through this day after day?”

Health Secretary Steve Barclay pictured outside the Cabinet Office on December 21 (Thomas Krych/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock)

It added: “The NHS isn’t breaking, it’s broken. The NHS as we knew it is dead.

“The public have no idea, they don’t really know how dangerous this all is. It’s not a hospital problem, it’s a national problem, brought about by the politics of the people in power.”

The account, which the Mirror could not independently verify, was shared by a Twitter user called Becky who says she is an emergency medicine consultant.

She said: “Harrowing words from a senior emergency medicine doctor showing despair at not being able to provide the level of care every doctor hopes to for their patients.”

Martin Bagot