03 January 2023 - UK government urged to act over pressure facing the NHS
NHS: Government urged to take action over pressures
Charley Adams (BBC News, 03/01/2023)
Ministers are under mounting pressure to respond to "intolerable and unsustainable" pressure facing the NHS.
Senior doctors described the NHS as on a knife edge, with some A&Es in a "complete state of crisis".
Labour criticised the government's management of the health service, while the Liberal Democrats called for Parliament to be recalled early.
‘Intolerable’ NHS crisis to continue until April, health leaders warn
Andrew Gregory (The Guardian, 02/01/2023)
The crisis engulfing the NHS will continue until Easter, health leaders have warned, as senior doctors accused ministers of letting patients die needlessly through inaction.
More than a dozen trusts and ambulance services have declared critical incidents in recent days, with soaring demand, rising flu and Covid cases and an overstretched workforce piling pressure on the health service.
The collapse of the NHS was all too tragically predictable
Julie Kirby (The Telegraph, 02/01/2023)
Have NHS bosses learnt nothing from the pandemic? In 2020, we were told to stay away from hospitals and GP surgeries to prevent the health service from collapsing under the strain of Covid. In the ensuing two years, mortality statistics have shown the price paid for such restraint: thousands of excess deaths due to delayed treatments and a failure to diagnose serious health conditions.
Even if Yousaf quits, NHS will still be dying in darkness
Neil Mackay (The Herald Scotland, 02/01/2023)
If there’s no answer to a problem, then find someone to carry the can and make them suffer. The scapegoat is as old as humanity. When things go wrong, we need someone to blame - because we can’t blame ourselves, can we?