NHS officials have warned that the NHS is struggling to cope with growing demand for urgent and emergency care, with hospitals under the kind of pressure “usually seen at the height of winter”.
A&E units across the UK are so crowded that 50% are being forced to hold sick patients outside or turn ambulances away every day, Britain’s top emergency doctor told the Guardian. The figure is the highest ever recorded; it was 27% in October 2020 and 17% in March this year.
Half of casualty wards were also having to treat patients in corridors every day, added Dr Katherine Henderson, the president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, which carried out the survey. The proportion was 17% in October 2020 and 14% in March this year.
Full story in The Guardian, 24 September 2021