Rishi Sunak must withdraw parliament “immediately” so that MPs can discuss the “NHS crisis”, a leading medical organization has said.
writing a letter to P.M On Wednesday, the Physicians Association of the United Kingdom (DAUK), an organization run by frontline medical staff, and their supporters say MPs must return from holiday by Monday, January 9.
Says the National Health Service it’s broken. Patients are dying and staff suffer moral damage from the terrible conditions.
“We desperately need meaningful action from our leaders and this cannot wait.
“We therefore call on the government to immediately call members of parliament from their Christmas break to the House of Commons for an emergency debate on the state of the NHS.
“All parties must put aside the election-based strategy and focus on the immediate actions that can be taken to save lives.”
In the letter, DAUK says that “up to 500 people die every week due to delays in emergency care” and warns the prime minister that NHS staff are reporting “the worst conditions they have seen inside the service”.
The correspondence continues: “Contrary to reports in number 10, the NHS does NOT have enough money. People are dying because of an abject refusal to invest the sums needed to pay staff and provide social care.
“The result of inaction and ignoring our voices will be more preventable deaths and bleeding from experienced and hard-working healthcare personnel.
“Prime Minister, we implore you to act TODAY, without delay.”
The Prime Minister will deliver a speech outlining priorities for the coming year
Earlier today, shadow health minister Dr Rosena Allin-Khan said NHS staff will work feeling like they have “one arm tied” amid mounting pressures on the health care service.
Ms. Allin-Khan, who worked at the National Health Service over Christmas and will complete a shift this Sunday, he told Sky News that the current pressures mean “we have a situation where people are undergoing intimate examinations in closets.”
Use the Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Data shows NHS strains
Asked what it comes down to, he said: “We’ve had 12 years of policy choices that have resulted in us already having an under-resourced NHS with no slack in the system.
“We now have a situation where people are having intimate exams in closets, patients are waiting up to 99 hours in an ambulance in an emergency room, unable to get a bed inside a hospital.
“We have children sleeping on plastic chairs, patients lying on the floor, being examined on the floor with sheets held up by nurses.”
Ms Allin-Khan said the state of the NHS is an “acute crisis” and described the doctors and nurses as “absolutely broken”.
The shadow health minister said Labor has a “workforce plan” to deal with the problems, adding: “We will train an additional 10,000 nurses and midwives every year, double the number of places in medical schools, have 5,000 additional health visitors, we would improve our mental health services.”
Concerns about the current state of public healthcare are growing, with more than a dozen NHS trusts and ambulance services declaring critical incidents over the festive period.
Yesterday Downing Street said the government is doing “everything possible” to increase the number of hospital beds Available as winter pressures continue to bite.
But the British Medical Association (BMA) accused the government’s “political choices” of causing patients to “die unnecessarily”.
Issuing a stark warning earlier this week, Professor Phil Banfield, chairman of the BMA council, said: “The current situation in the NHS is intolerable and unsustainable, both for our patients and for the hard-working and treating staff. desperately trying to keep up with unbelievably high levels.” levels of demand”.
But the prime minister’s official spokesman said on Tuesday ministers had been “frank” with the public about the pressures the NHS would face this winterpartly due to the backlog created by the pandemic.
He also acknowledged that the current pressure on the health service was an “unprecedented challenge”.
Opposition parties have criticized the government for its inaction in recent days, and Liberal Democrats have called for parliament to withdraw to discuss the situation.
Speaking for the first time since the festive period yesterday, health secretary blamed high flu cases, COVID and fears about strep A by the “massive pressure” the NHS has faced in recent weeks.
Asked if the situation was acceptable, Steve Barclay said “no”, adding that he had held meetings on Tuesday and over Christmas with England’s NHS to review their operational plans, with a particular focus on tackling “delayed discharges”. : those people in the hospital. beds that are fit enough to go home.
