Exhausted NHS heroes crying in car parks after losing lives that could be saved
Exhausted doctors and nurses are breaking down in tears in hospital car parks after losing lives that could have been saved during their shift.
This shocking plight of our NHS heroes is today laid bare in a devastating interview with a junior A&E doctor who says Tory politicians should be jailed for wilful neglect of the service.
It comes as up to 500 people a week are dying because of delays in emergency care amid crippling demand, a lack of beds, ambulance queues and a staffing black hole.
And a GP at her wits end tells how surgeries have been turned into little more than “conveyor belts” through lack of staff, despite Tory claims.
Painting a stark picture of the grim reality in many hospitals, junior doctor Andrew Meyerson, 40, said: “My colleagues cry in the car park, shell-shocked, haunted by the substandard care they have been forced to deliver.
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The candid revelations about the state of hospitals in London will increase calls for more help for the NHS (Getty Images)"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.
Dr Shabina Qayyum said she is forced to practice 'conveyor belt' medicine (Shabina Qayyum)
Dr Andrew Meyerson said his colleagues are devastated at being forced to provide substandard care (Andrew Meyerson)"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.”
Soaring cases of flu and Covid, plus high levels of illness linked to strep A, are helping fan the flames.
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NHS absences linked to Covid alone rose nearly 50% in December alone – on top of a wider 130,000 staffing black hole across the service, including our local surgeries.
In February 2020, the Government announced a drive to recruit 6,000 more GPs by 2024.
Nurses and ambulance workers have been striking in protest at their pay and working conditions (Getty Images)Latest British Medical Association analysis shows the equivalent of 1,973 fewer fully-qualified full-time GPs than in 2015.
Each fully-qualified doctor now looks after 2,270 patients – up 17% on 2015.
Dr Shabina Qayyum is personally responsible for 2,375 patients and assesses up to 50 people in a shift at her East Anglia surgery.
She calls it “conveyor belt” medicine. Dr Qayyum, 46, 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.
Rishi Sunak has pledged to cut NHS waiting times (Getty Images)“The stress has been so incredible. It’s alright for Rishi Sunak to make promises. All there has been are false ones.”
Meanwhile Dr Meyerson added: “Our head consultant called a staff meeting on Thursday to thank all A&E staff for their heroic work in a “week from hell”.
"The meeting was a small but caring gesture. It was also a reminder we’re on our own. This government won’t rescue anyone. Not patients. Not staff. They know their policies have killed tens of thousands of patients — but they don’t care.
"They will claim we need an insurance-based scheme. Yet under Labour the NHS became the best healthcare system on Earth.
“We don’t need a new system – we need a new government.”
- EveryDoctor wants five Tory commitments to end the NHS crisis, including staff mental health support, ending the immigration backlog so foreign employees can start work, reform of NHS pension tax regulations, removal of locum pay caps and a cap on NHS estate energy costs.
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