Peter Lazenby
This is the last article you can read this month
You can read more article this month
You can read more articles this month
Sorry your limit is up for this month
Reset on:
Please help support the Morning Star by subscribing here
THE NHS is “at the point of collapse,” the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) warned today, yet Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is “detached from the reality of the situation.”
RCN director for England Patricia Marquis issued the warning as official figures showed a 20 per cent increase in deaths, dangerously high bed occupancy and thousands of hospital patients who simply have nowhere else to go.
She reported patients sleeping in their cars and “every square inch” of hospital space occupied by patients.
The increased death toll in England and Wales was recorded in the week before Christmas, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), and included more deaths from pneumonia and flu.
NHS England said that ambulance handover delays had climbed to a new high in the week to January 1, reflecting “the ongoing struggle faced by hospitals to find space for new arrivals.”
Mr Sunak parroted claims that the after-effects of the Covid-19 pandemic was the main reason for the crisis and said that the government was investing more in social care to help free up hospital beds.
However, Ms Marquis said: “Our NHS is at the point of collapse, but we have a Prime Minister who is detached from the reality of the situation.
“Bed occupancy rates are running at dangerous levels — around 95 per cent — with every square inch of hospital space being used to add more patients, yet there are not more nursing staff to treat the ever-growing number of those who need care.
“Hospitals are having to expand into corridors, while patients sleep in their cars because there are no beds. There is simply no slack in the system and precious few nursing staff.
“At the same time, there are almost 90,000 patients who are fit to be discharged but there aren’t the community and social care staff to care for them.
“We are urging the government to show a renewed sense of urgency in opening negotiations on the current NHS pay award — fair pay is the only way to recruit and retain the nursing staff we need.”
Ms Marquis called for publication of the government’s much-trumpeted NHS workforce plan, with “new investment in both the NHS and social care workforce, including fair pay for nursing staff.”
