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IT has been one of the toughest winters on record for the NHS.
Hospitals are overflowing with patients, more are queueing up in ambulances outside, and the UK has been hit by a barrage of illnesses.
The Royal College of Nursing found patients are dying in corridors and waiting rooms without painkillers or treatment[/caption]
Figures released this week revealed measles cases have hit a 13-year high, norovirus infections are more than double the five-season average, and Covid and flu continue to circulate.
The number of patients waiting more than 12 hours for a bed on a ward in England is also 19 times higher than before the pandemic.
It comes as a major report by the Royal College of Nursing found patients are dying in corridors and waiting rooms without painkillers or treatment.
With no sign of the pressure easing, staff are at breaking point.
Sun Health Correspondent Sam Blanchard speaks to an emergency department worker at a major hospital in the South East . . .
WE know we can fit 30 overflow beds in the A&E corridor because hospital managers have come down and measured it.
We don’t call it the corridor, we call it the runway, and I can remember the last time we didn’t have to keep people there was New Year’s in 2022.
The department is full on every shift so we have no more bed space and have no option except to park people in the corridors.
Normalising this is an admittance of failure from the NHS and it is soul-destroying for us to see it.
Last night we had 15 or 16 people on beds there, which wasn’t the worst it has been.
There is less flu around but more vomiting because of norovirus — the waiting room was particularly awful.
We think we have it bad in A&E but it happens all over the hospital.
Don’t need to be there
Some patients will spend their time in the emergency department on a trolley in the corridor and then be taken up to a ward, only to find out the ward is over capacity by four patients so they get kept in a corridor there, shoved between two doors.
Some people spend their entire time in the hospital on a trolley and never get a bed.
It is often the elderly patients and they are my absolute favourite.
They know they are receiving s*** care and the first thing I say is “I’m sorry” but most of the time they hold my hand, tell me not to worry and say “I’m just glad I’m here”.
They are very protective of the NHS.
The younger patients who are not as sick are where you tend to get the abuse, and a lot of people in A&E don’t need to be there.
We get a lot of adults in their 30s, 40s and 50s who come in with a fever or because they have been sick a couple of times.
Instead of being the last port of call we are becoming the first.
I think health anxiety is a big thing now and people use the internet too much and don’t take accountability for themselves.
They want a quick fix like with everything else in society.
Recently someone smashed up the triage room because they were told to go to minor injuries.
A 35-year-old man who came in because he had diarrhoea screamed in my face.
A relative said they would blame me if their mum died. We’ve had a nurse sexually assaulted and we weren’t shocked when we heard the news about a nurse getting stabbed a few weeks ago.
When 111 tells people to come to A&E and a nurse tells them they don’t need to be there so it’ll be a seven-hour wait, they aren’t happy — they feel pushed from pillar to post.
It feels like NHS staff are public enemy number one because people are receiving inadequate care and we’re the ones giving it.
We see patient safety scandals and inquiries at individual hospitals but I think we’re in the middle of a national one.
Tragedies are happening everywhere all the time and things need to change.
I want people to direct their anger at those who can change things and not at us.
Hope for better days
I’ve spent seven years in healthcare and it’s a job I’ve really fallen in love with, but I have almost handed in my notice. A&E is a real mix of variety and chaos and you can give someone really good care at a rubbish time in their life.
You can make a difference to people and help them feel better, and that’s what the NHS is all about — my colleagues feel the same.
Part of what keeps me going is the hope there will be better days.
Maybe in the summer people will be able to get into the wards and only A&E will be full.
There needs to be a massive improvement to social care because there are just too many people in hospital.
A lot of families are obstructive and aren’t happy with care homes for their relatives, but refuse to find an alternative themselves, and that patient spends weeks or months in hospital deteriorating.
We want to make a difference but I ask myself how long it will be until I’m burnt out — maybe only another six months.
People are taking this seriously now and I hope it will be the start of change.
If not, nursing staff are ready to leave because the conditions are awful and the pay’s not much better.
New Zealand is looking pretty nice right now.
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Hospitals are overflowing with patients[/caption]
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