The British Medical Association has said that the National Health Service is suffering from unsustainable and intolerable pressure from the rising healthcare burden in the UK. This is mostly because of seasonal diseases such as flu and cold in the winter. Professor Phil Banfield, the Chair of the BMA council, asked the UK government to step up and take immediate action which will resolve this problem for the NHS. Due to the current tension between the officials and NHS staff, healthcare institutions are struggling to address the constant influx of patients. There have been many hospitals in the country announcing their failure to address the rising hospital admissions and number of patients.
The NHS has been struggling as the nurses working under the national agency decided to go on strike because of their demand to have better pay rates during times of inflation. The Royal College of Nursing is leading the strike of nursing staff in the UK. This marks the first time when the nursing staff has decided to go on a strike in the 106-year history of the Royal College of Nursing. This strike has emerged at some of the worst times possible because winter is considered a busy season for healthcare workers. According to the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, the NHS is going through one of the toughest winter seasons, especially in terms of accidents and emergencies. The Royal College of Emergency Medicine looks after the UK A&E departments and it said that many A&E departments in the UK are in a complete crisis as they are lacking staff. This is putting the patients in need of emergency care at significant risk. Many hospitals have shown high waiting periods for emergency cases because of not having the required staff. Dr. Ian Higginson, the vice president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine said that the situation with emergency departments is so bad that he has seen waiting periods longer than four days, because of which the hospitals and other healthcare institutions are failing to provide the care at the desired standards.
Amid all this, the number of flu patients admitted to the hospital has gone up at an alarming rate, which has pushed healthcare institutions to their limits. These increasing numbers and delayed emergency care are showing their consequences in the form of rising mortality numbers. This was addressed by the president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, Dr. Adrian Boyle. He said that as the patients are getting delayed emergency care, the death count has risen to over 500 deaths per week in the country. These numbers have been published by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine in their journal. Although many are criticizing these numbers, one cannot think that the reality is far from the current situation. This is mainly because delayed care does not mean that the care which is given is optimum and of high quality. Because of the growing burden on healthcare institutions, even after waiting for getting medical care, the care which is given to the patients is of subpar quality, simply because of the number of patients that the NHS staff has to handle these days.
