Thread by @dgurdasani1

When A&Es are overwhelmed, patient safety becomes compromised. Here, a post-covid pulmonary embolism was missed initially with patient sent home without assessment. When he was finally diagnosed, he was managed at home despite low O2 levels & repeated trips to A&E. This is unsafe

https://twitter.com/benking01/status/1497671417583718401

Here's data on the no. of patients needing to wait >12 hrs for decision to admit in A&E- a measure of pressure in A&Es. The increases up to Jan '22 are completely off the scale. This is what we're dealing with. Services so overwhelmed simply cannot function at the same level.

We need urgent support for the NHS- the problems are complex- chronic underfunding, Brexit, the cumulative impact of the devastation of the NHS by 2 yrs of failed pandemic policy, long covid in staff, staff burnout - have all contributed.

But we aren't seeing any solutions discussed. Given that any solutions will take time to implement, we're already acting too late in this. Rather than take steps to alleviate this, our govt is digging in further asking the NHS to fund covid testing of HCWs going forward as well.

Taking £5 bn *out* of the NHS at this critical time is frankly criminal. We need to be talking about how we support the NHS and ensure patient care isn't compromised. This affects all of us.

It is troubling that we cannot guarantee that standards of care will be maintained even for life threatening diseases - this should be an urgent issue. Why isn't it being treated as one?