‘In future I will just avoid it’: Inside crisis in London A&Es as patients face ‘horrendous’ 12-hour waits
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Patients in London have told of their “horrendous” experiences waiting for treatment in A&E, as new figures highlight the crisis facing hospitals in the capital. A severe wave of flu and other seasonal illnesses has left the health service at breaking point, with patients being treated on corridors or told to stay away from emergency departments.
Data published by NHS England shows that the number of patients occupying beds in London hospitals despite being fit for discharge reached its highest total this winter on January 6. There were 1,806 medically well people languishing on wards, a rise of 32 per cent in a fortnight.
Many beds in hospital are taken up by elderly, vulnerable patients with no social care package to be discharged into. This can lead to gridlock in A&E as sick patients cannot be allocated a bed, which causes delays for ambulances attempting to hand over their patients.
On Wednesday, the Standard spoke to patients at Barnet Hospital, which is operated by the Royal Free London NHS Trust. Last week, a flu patient described waiting for 12 hours overnight in the hospital’s A&E after coughing up blood. Barnet resident Heather Drewell, 85, was taken to hospital three times by ambulance in December for dangerously high blood pressure.
“My experience was horrendous. I’ve been three times, and every time waited 12 hours, no water, no nothing,” she told the Standard, adding that patients had “no idea” when they might be seen. She said she eventually had to drink from taps in the bathroom after being told that water machines were broken.
