Month: January 2023

Dr Ian Higginson, the college’s vice-president, said he was in “no doubt” there was a risk to patients.

Hospitals are facing soaring demands, which experts believe is in part driven by winter illnesses like flu and Covid.

The government said it recognised the pressures faced by the NHS.

According to the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) – which monitors standards of care in UK A&E departments – the NHS is facing the worst winter for A&E waits on record.

A number of hospitals have declared critical incidents in recent days, meaning they cannot function as usual due to extraordinary pressure. Other trusts have told patients to avoid emergency departments unless their condition is life-threatening.

On Sunday, RCEM president Dr Adrian Boyle said between 300 and 500 people were dying every week as a result of delays to emergency care.

He said a severe flu outbreak, which was made worse by a lack of immunity because of Covid isolation measures, has resulted in bed occupancy reaching record levels.

“What we’re seeing now in terms of these long waits is being associated with increased mortality, and we think somewhere between 300-500 people are dying as a consequence of delays and problems with urgent and emergency care each week,” he told Times Radio. “We need to actually get a grip of this.”

But NHS England’s Chris Hopson said care needed to be taken “jumping to conclusions about excess mortality rates and their cause without a really full and detailed look at the evidence”.

He said a study of the evidence was “under way”, but until detailed work is conducted “it’s really difficult to say”.

Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live, emergency consultant Dr Higginson said: “Emergency departments are in a really difficult and in some cases a complete state of crisis right now… and in many cases we are unable to provide care at the standard we would like.”

“There’s no doubt that if you can’t get an ambulance to someone who’s having a heart attack or a stroke, that some of those patients are going to come to harm and may die as a result of that.

“And there’s no doubt that when we’re trying to treat frail, elderly vulnerable patients on trolleys in corridors that we can’t do the best thing by them. “

He said staff were doing their best, but investment was needed to support the health service.

In November, more than 37,000 people waited more than 12 hours in A&E for a decision to be admitted to a hospital department, according to data from NHS England. This was more than triple the equivalent figure for November 2021, when an estimated 10,646 waited longer than 12 hours.

Chris Hopson from NHS England said it was evident that the NHS was “under significant pressure at the moment” which he said could result in patients waiting longer for treatment.

He told BBC Radio 5 Live he feels “deeply uncomfortable” about the level of care sometimes being provided at moments of pressure.

Mr Hopson listed multiple factors that have contributed to pressures on NHS services including:

He said adding all these together left “25,000 of the 100,000 NHS beds” filled with either medically fit patients waiting to be discharged and people suffering with either Covid or the flu.

Mr Hopson also said there were 9,500 NHS staff absent at the moment due to Covid.

However, the chief strategy officer urged people in need of medical attention to “come forward”, but reminded patients to “use the best route” of support.

Saffron Cordery, interim chief executive of NHS Providers – which represent trusts in England – said the pressure on the NHS was “equivalent” to that of the early stage of the coronavirus pandemic.

She said the causes were coming from “various directions” including a backlog of operations, a worn-out workforce, staff shortages, lack of investment and continued Covid and flu cases.

Mr Cordery told PA news agency there were up to 133,000 staff vacancies across the NHS at the time.

There have been repeated warnings about the staffing crisis facing the health service, which last year was described as the worst workforce crisis in NHS history.

Meanwhile, separately nurses and paramedics went on strike in December and the British Medical Association has said it will ballot junior doctors this month. Nurses will again strike in England on 18 and 19 January and ambulance staff in parts of England on 11 and 23 January.

The government says it recognises the pressures being faced, and said it was providing £14.1bn in additional funding for health and social care over the next two years, as well as an extra £500m to try to speed up hospital discharges.

Despite wet weather, revellers remained undeterred and took to the streets to usher in 2023.

More than 100,000 people gathered in London for the fireworks display which paid tribute to the late Queen.

And in Edinburgh, the world-famous Hogmanay street party attracted more than 30,000 party-goers to the city.

It was the first time since 2019 that people gathered along the Thames Embankment to watch the 12-minute firework display in London, which the city’s mayor Sadiq Khan said was the biggest in Europe.

As Big Ben rang out to mark the new year, London’s famous skyline exploded into colour with a barrage of fireworks.

The sold-out show in the capital, set to music, featured a voice recording from the late Queen and words from Dame Judi Dench. It then went on to honour King Charles with a message about the need to preserve our planet’s future.

The show was designed to send a message of “love and unity”, as it highlighted the Lionesses’ history-making Euro win at Wembley, marked 50 years of London’s Pride with a message from Peter Tatchell from the Gay Liberation Front, and sent a message of support to Ukraine.

Music from the display included hits from Stormzy, Calvin Harris, Rihanna and finished with the traditional Auld Lang Syne.

Last year, a smaller display with drones had been broadcast near London’s landmarks.

Earlier in the day, the Met Office had issued yellow warnings for rain in the south-west of England and warnings for ice and snow across the Scottish Highlands.

Organisers of the sold-out Hogmanay street party in Edinburgh said it was back in its “rightful home” after three years off due to the coronavirus pandemic.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon described it as the “first full Hogmanay celebrations in three years”.

In a new year message on Twitter, she wrote: “Thinking back to Hogmanay last year and indeed the year before that, we’re reminded of just how far we have come from the very darkest days of the pandemic.”

Fireworks lit up Edinburgh’s Castle and The Pet Shop Boys headlined the event in Princes Street Gardens.

The street party, which has previously offered 60,000 spaces, was scaled back to just 30,000 tickets.

In Cardiff, families partied in the city’s Winter Wonderland, while people in Belfast celebrated at Europa Hotel’s annual Gala Ball.

But elsewhere, one new year celebration did not take place as a result of an arctic walrus being spotted on the coast.

The walrus was discovered in Scarborough’s town harbour on New Year’s Eve and the council decided to cancel its show after warnings it could cause distress to the animal.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak released a video message on social media marking the new year, in which he said he was confident “better times lie ahead” and he wanted people to feel “hopeful” going into 2023.

“I may have only had the job for several weeks at this point, but actually I feel good about the future,” he said.

“I feel positive about the change that we can bring so that we can improve everyone’s lives, so that we can deliver the peace of mind that people are looking for in the here and now.”

Mr Sunak’s video address struck a more upbeat tone than an earlier message when he said the UK’s problems will not go away in 2023.