Extreme pressures facing NHS accident and emergency departments have been thrown into stark relief by the revelation that two patients died after lengthy waits on trolleys in corridors, and a third was found hanged on a ward at the same hospital.
It has been claimed that one woman died of a heart attack after waiting for 35 hours on a trolley at Worcestershire Royal hospital and another man suffered an aneurysm while on a trolley, and could not be saved. It is also alleged that a patient was found hanged on a ward. Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS trust confirmed the hospital was under pressure.
The cases emerged after the publication of an analysis that showed the NHS was on the brink of a winter crisis. A larger than expected increase in patient numbers caused a third of hospital trusts in England to warn they needed urgent action to cope.
The chief executive of the British Red Cross, Mike Adamson, said the charity had been called in to help the NHS as it responded to a “humanitarian crisis”.
Full story in The Guardian 6 January 2017