Sir,
The Prime Minister talks about GP appointments but Emergency Departments are in cardiac arrest.
As ambulances queue outside hospitals, patients lie on trolleys in Emergency Departments with a lack of privacy and access to the treatment they require. Many of these patients wait 12 hours or more before being admitted. Statistics show that around one in 82 patients will die as a direct result of waiting over six hours.
Patients, relatives and staff are in despair, and we have not reached the winter period. The cost-of-living crisis is expected to bring further pressures, including a need for greater access to already overstretched mental health services. This is a third world experience for patients in one of the wealthiest countries in the world.
We urge the Prime Minister to focus on the dire situation in Emergency Departments – they are in crisis as a direct consequence of this government’s failure to reverse the successive reduction of bed numbers and the devastating cuts to social care budgets.
Prime Minister, act now before it is too late.
Jayne Hidderley
Chair, Royal College of Emergency Medicine Lay Advisory Group
