Medics returning to A&E after 12 hours off finding same patients still waiting

An ER GP recounted how he was close to tears on Wednesday when he “apologized to patients for the standards of care”.

Hospital bosses are now bracing for even more pressure in the coming days due to “pent-up” demand for healthcare after strikes by nurses and ambulances this week.

The head of a North West hospital told the Health Service Journal: “A&E is so busy this week that the staff went home after their shift… They came back 12 hours later and saw the same group of patients in the department, still waiting”. be admitted…

“I can’t tell you how demoralizing that is.”

Dr Rob Galloway, who works at the University of Brighton and Sussex NHS Trust, tweeted on Wednesday: “I have been on the verge of tears tonight as I apologize to patients for the standards of care we are able to provide.

“In my 22 years as an A&E doctor, I have never seen anything this bad. It is the same everywhere.

“I just hope patients know that it’s the politicians’ fault, not the NHS staff.”

Saffron Cordery, interim chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents hospital trusts, warned that the health service, already under great pressure from flu, covid and strep A, was facing a “time challenging in the coming days.”

She told BBC Breakfast: “After this kind of strike, after something like a bank holiday, in the NHS, we know there’s a lot of pent-up demand.

“So although yesterday, with the ambulance service strikes, maybe the demand went down, what we’re going to see now is that the demand actually goes up.

“Emergency departments in particular are going to feel the strain in those areas where there were strikes.”

With the threat of more strikes in the NHS, transport and other sectors, Junior Minister Mark Spencer called on striking workers to “get off the pickets and back to work”.

He told Times Radio: “As a society we have to try to find a way to get through this together. We have to try to balance the burden of this challenge across society.

“There are many people working in the private sector who are also under great pressure due to the impact of the pandemic and Putin’s war.

“They also feel pressure and pain. They are also seeing an increase in bills. They can’t afford to see their taxes go up or their costs go up like everyone else.”

However, while average wage increases in the public sector are below three percent, they are almost seven percent in the private sector.

The Government has been at pains to explain why public sector workers should bear a greater burden to avoid spiraling inflation.

Ministers, however, have stressed that big pay increases for public sector workers will cost billions that would have to be raised from higher taxes, more loans or cuts in services.

Amid claims that the salary review process for next year could be sped up, Spencer said: “I think the answer, first of all, is to get off the picket line and get back to work.

“The salary review body is an annual process, of course it will happen again as we move into next year, but we have to accept this year, and then of course next year’s salary review body will take into Consider the inflation that we have seen in the last 12 months that is squeezing everyone, not just those who work in the public sector.”

However, unions have criticized Health Secretary Steve Barclay for not agreeing to this year’s wage talks, accusing the government of “recklessly endangering lives by refusing to bargain”.

Polls suggest that public support for striking NHS staff remains stronger than for other sectors, such as railway workers.