Death in waiting room under investigation as NHS crisis worsens

An emergency department in Dudley is under investigation after a man died in a waiting room. The Trust does not discuss individual cases but have confirmed that a man died in Russells Hall's emergency room in November.

Elsewhere, One doctor working in A&E apologised for the overcrowding which he said had caused “3rd world conditions”.

The stories of an NHS Winter Crisis are starting to become normalised, but some of the details that have emerged in the past week are truly shocking. Years of Tory austerity, mismanagement and privatisation throughout the NHS has left the staff fighting an uphill battle to provide care for those in need.

It’s tempting to get carried away in reeling off the stats, but it’s important to remember that each one of the 17,000 patients left waiting in ambulances is someone’s mum, dad, grandparent or child. The nature of sickness is such that one day it could be you. The human cost of Tory callousness has never been so clear.

Jeremy Hunt broke his silence on Twitter this morning to essentially accept that the NHS is in crisis. Theresa May later apologised for the on-going situation which has seen 'non-vital' operations cancelled. While the Prime Minister says she knows how “difficult, frustrating and disappointing” the cancellations have been for people, there has been no effort to mitigate the crisis.

Platitudes from May about the NHS being “better prepared for winter than ever” are clearly not going to placate the growing public anger, which started at the ballot box in June last year when Labour denied Theresa May of her parliamentary majority. Public sector workers, suffering years of a pay-freeze and seeing the service they have worked in for decades decimated by the Tories, turned to Labour in huge numbers.

Jeremy Corbyn has been quick to lay the blame for the crisis at the feet of May and Hunt for the long-term under-funding of the NHS. As the British Medical Association stated this isn’t just about one aspect of the NHS, it’s a systemic crisis. With GP appointments almost impossible to attain, A&Es across the country full and beds taken with people suffering from cuts to social care, there is nowhere for people to go.

The NHS has cared for people for more than 60 years, but it wont survive much longer with the Tories refusing to give it the funding it needs to flourish. The Tory drive for privatisation is costing British lives. Now, more than ever, we need a government that works to improve the life's of the people they serve, and not one that caters to the wallets of the wealthy.

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