Full story at The Guardian 11 January 2018
Patients are dying in hospital corridors during the ongoing winter crisis because the NHS is so underfunded and short-staffed that it cannot cope, senior doctors have warned Theresa May.
A&E units are under such intense strain that patients are at “intolerable” risk of being harmed by receiving poor care, specialists in emergency medicine from 68 hospitals have told the prime minister in a letter of unprecedented alarm.
In recent weeks some hospitals have become so overloaded that they have been looking after as many as 120 patients a day in corridors, with “some dying prematurely” as a result, the letter says.
The doctors, consultants who work in or run A&E units in England and Wales, have written to May to highlight “the very serious concerns we have for the safety of our patients. This current level of safety compromise is at times intolerable, despite the best efforts of staff.”