Patients are dying unnecessarily as A&Es are using corridors, storerooms, and ‘spaces’ to treat them because there aren’t enough beds, and staff.
The Nurses’ organisation has reported this for instance: “I had to change an incontinent, frail patient with dementia on the corridor, by the vending machine.”
Why?
Waits build up for ambulances and in A&Es because there aren’t enough beds for people who need them, so they have to stay in A&E.
Why?
Hospital closures, A&E closures. 112 accident and emergency departments were closed by successive governments in the last ten years.
Why?
Private Finance Initiative and profiteering. The PFI hospital building programme on average had a round a quarter fewer beds than the hospitals they replaced. In Greenwich area QEH is the only acute hospital but has fewer beds than the lost hospitals it has replaced (Brook General hospital, Greenwich District Hospital, Queen Mary A&E)
Why?
Shortage of GPs. Governments have failed to invest in medical training, appointments are like gold dust and people go to A&E instead.
