The pressure on the NHS is “intolerable and unsustainable”, medics have said, amid warnings that the deaths of up to 500 people each week could be caused by delays in emergency care.
Prof Phil Banfield, chair of the British Medical Association (BMA) council, hit out at both the prime minister and the health secretary. Highlighting the scale of the crisis facing healthcare workers, he called the government’s decision not to negotiate with medics a “political choice” that is leading to patients “dying unnecessarily”.
“The BMA has repeatedly invited the government to sit down and talk about the pressures on our health service, but their silence is deafening.”
“It is disingenuous for the prime minister to talk about ‘backing the NHS’ in his new year message, when his own health secretary is failing to discuss how this crisis can be fixed.”
He called on the government to “step up and take immediate action” to solve the crisis.
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https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/jan/02/nhs-under-intolerable-and-unsustainable-pressure-say-medics