Patients are dying in the UK due to lack of proper care: Report

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
3 Jan 2023 00:08
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UK's Royal College of Emergency Medicine association says that 400 patients on average are dying during emergency care due to long wait periods.

UK hospitals are offering insuffecient care to patients leading to the death of many in emergency rooms.

According to an AFP report published on Monday, patients in UK hospitals are dying due to insufficient care, UK medical bodies stated on Monday, calling on the government to act as the country's health sector is being hit with hiking demand and frequent winter strikes.

The UK's public National Health Service (NHS) faced funding limitations for over a decade prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, which stretched the sector critically, the report said.

"One in every five patients picked up by an ambulance in England last week took more than an hour to be admitted to emergency care, while tens of thousands waited more than 12 hours before receiving treatment there," the news site added.

Caused of long waiting times, between 300 and 500 patients would die every week in emergency rooms, said the Royal College of Emergency Medicine association on Sunday according to AFP.

The association's VP supported the statement in a comment made on Monday, refuting claims made by some hospital officials that the crisis was due to short-term factors.

"If you're at the front line, you know this is a longstanding problem... the sort of things we're seeing happen every winter, and it still seems to come as a surprise," Ian Higginson said to UK's BBC radio.

The British Medical Association (BMA) also commented on the issue on Monday.

According to BMA, the ongoing situation is "intolerable and unsustainable" as the NHS is up against "incredibly high levels of demand", stressing that the government must take action.

"It is just not true that this country cannot afford the cost of resolving this mess. This is a political choice and patients are dying unnecessarily because of that choice," said BMA UK chair member Phil Banfield.

According to the report, "the government has attributed the strains on the NHS to the consequences of the pandemic and winter illnesses such as flu."

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said in his New Year's address that his administration took "decisive action" and mobilized "record resources" to tackle pressures on the NHS and long-term backlogs.

However, the report stated, the government earlier adopted a budget-saving policy and declined salary raises demanded by nurses. At the same time, the country's inflation has surpassed 10 percent for several months, prompting nurses to carry out a strike in December, the first ever in their union's history.

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the West, including the UK sought to contain Russia through the imposition of various sanctionary and punitive mechanisms.

But due to the West's overreliance on Russian gas, anti-Russian sanctions have caused more damage to UK citizens than they did to Russia, and as the government struggles to find alternatives to Russian gas, the masses are taking to the streets to voice their opposition to the consequences of the West's war on Ukraine that they have to put up with.

Social dissatisfaction has grown as the UK entered a severe economic crisis earlier this year. Annual inflation in the UK hit 11.1% in October. According to the Bank of England, the UK economy has entered a recession expected to last until the second half of 2024.