The NHS is struggling with pressures across the board.  Failing finances and a public health budget that is being squeezed means that the health service struggles to deliver even the basic care.  With its worst performance for more than a decade the government still expects the NHS to meet its targets.

In response, Dr Mark Holland, president of the Society for Acute Medicine (SAM) has said:

 “The ability to deliver acute medical care is reaching crisis point and any other crisis affecting our society would be acknowledged and addressed. The volume of patients and disease severity is so much that we are now functioning at the edge of what is possible….. the NHS is running out of steam.”

Patient nonsense?

The Department of Health dismissed Dr Holland’s warning, claiming that:

“This is patent nonsense, and does a disservice to our hospitals and staff coping well under huge pressure. Seeing 111,000 more people in A&E in under four hours last month, treating more patients for cancer than ever before and slashing the number of people who have to wait more than a year for treatment.”

Health service struggles to cope

Failing to provide urgent life and death treatment because emergency ambulances failed to attend quickly enough; failing to meet the 62-day cancer treatment target and provide urgent care, and failing to provide adequate social care for those that need it would appear to contradict the Department of Health and as Heidi Alexander, the shadow health secretary said, this is “a crisis of their own making.”

If you believe that you have suffered additional harm as a result of delayed treatment, you may be entitled to claim. To find out more, please contact our specialist clinical negligence team.

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