Senior doctors have warned that the NHS is at risk of collapse unless ministers take urgent action, following a ‘shocking’ and ‘devastating’ special report by the Guardian. The report, which spent 33 hours inside the health service, exposed the ‘daily reality’ of pressure on staff and the ‘dire impact’ on patients.
Dr Adrian Boyle, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, and Prof Philip Banfield, chair of the British Medical Association, said the account from the frontline should serve as a wake-up call to the government. They warned that without measures to increase capacity, retain and recruit staff, and resolve social care problems, more patients would die and the service itself could collapse.
Banfield described the report as a ‘vivid and unsettling illustration’ of the challenges facing health and social care workers. He noted that the NHS was strained even before Covid-19 and now ‘teeters on the very edge of collapse’. He added that staff were going to ‘heroic efforts’ but many were exhausted and considering leaving.
Boyle said the single biggest issue was the struggle to discharge medically fit patients, which was driving poor hospital flow. He called for immediate action to bolster the social care workforce to ensure timely discharges. ‘We need action now before the depths of winter sink us further and more patients die,’ he said.
Samantha Wathen of Keep Our NHS Public called the report a ‘devastating assessment’ of the NHS’s decline, blaming over a decade of government underfunding and understaffing. Saffron Cordery of NHS Providers said the findings would resonate with trust leaders across the country.
