{"id":19508,"date":"2025-01-07T18:49:46","date_gmt":"2025-01-07T19:49:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=19508"},"modified":"2025-01-07T20:26:46","modified_gmt":"2025-01-07T20:26:46","slug":"streeting-says-he-is-ashamed-of-nhs-winter-problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=19508","title":{"rendered":"Streeting says he is ashamed of NHS winter problems"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The health secretary has said some patients’ experience of the NHS this winter makes him feel “ashamed”.<\/p>\n

Wes Streeting said he had seen patients left crying and distressed and stuck in corridors, as hospitals struggle to cope.<\/p>\n

It comes as a number of NHS trusts declare critical incidents due to exceptionally high demand in A&E.<\/p>\n

NHS sources told BBC News about a dozen hospitals in England had declared major incidents, at one point on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

‘Very distressing’<\/h2>\n
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Streeting told LBC he had seen A&E patients confused and crying out in distress, while others had been being treated in corridors, during a recent hospital visit.<\/p>\n

“When I went in, they said, ‘You are here on a fairly good day – it’s not too bad today,'” he said.<\/p>\n

“And as I walked around these conditions, I was looking around thinking, ‘This is a good day?”‘<\/p>\n

Streeting promised to do “everything I can” to “make sure that year-on-year, we see consistent improvement”.<\/p>\n

It would “take time” – but the government would publish an urgent and emergency reform plan “shortly”.<\/p>\n

“In the meantime, I feel genuinely distressed and ashamed, actually, of some of the things that patients are experiencing and I know that the staff of the NHS and social-care services feel the same – they go to work, they slog their guts out, and it’s very distressing for them, seeing people in this condition, as well,” Streeting said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

‘Unsafe care’<\/h2>\n
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He said he had also seen ambulance crews taking dying patients into hospital because there was no end-of-life care available for them in the community.<\/p>\n

“It breaks my heart,” Streeting added.<\/p>\n

Critical incidents were also declared in the East Midlands, Birmingham, Devon, Cornwall, Northamptonshire and Hampshire.<\/p>\n

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  • The East Midlands Ambulance Service – which covers Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire – declared the first critical incident in its history due to a combination of “significant patient demand, pressure within hospitals and flooding”<\/li>\n
  • Health bosses have asked people suffering from flu, Covid, norovirus or respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) to stay away from the Royal Cornwall Hospital’s A&E department in Truro<\/li>\n
  • An influx of patients at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth has also prompted a critical incident<\/li>\n
  • Hampshire Hospitals said, due to “sustained pressures” at its Basingstoke and Winchester hospitals, it has also declared a critical incident<\/li>\n
  • University Hospitals Birmingham is another trust to have declared a critical incident with an “exceptional number” of patients with flu requiring hospital admission<\/li>\n
  • NHS services in Northamptonshire have also escalated their status to critical, due to what they say is ongoing demand, particularly at Northampton and Kettering general hospitals<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Critical incidents, which can last for a few hours or several days, allow services to:<\/p>\n

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    • recall staff from leave<\/li>\n
    • suspend non-urgent services <\/li>\n
    • receive support from nearby hospitals<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      They are not unusual at this time of year \u2013 about 30 hospitals declared them at one point at the start of 2023.<\/p>\n

      But NHS bosses have said the first week of 2025 has been very difficult, as high rates of flu, combined with cold weather and flooding, have caused a surge in demand.<\/p>\n

      In Scotland, doctors said hospitals had become gridlocked and were in the middle of a “winter crisis” too.<\/p>\n

      Dr Fiona Hunter, from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said: “We are running on hard work and goodwill, and our patients are receiving unacceptable, undignified and unsafe care in corridors and in the back of ambulances.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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