Patient safety

Hunt rejects Red Cross claims of ‘humanitarian crisis’ in NHS

The health secretary Jeremy Hunt has rejected claims from the British Red Cross that NHS hospitals are facing a “humanitarian crisis” as the charity bolstered support from across the country to relieve pressure on hospitals over the festive period.

Hunt, who is set to give a statement to MPs in the House of Commons today, has said that while deaths last week in Worcestershire Royal Hospital are “totally unacceptable”, hospitals are improving.

Last Friday Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust launched an investigation into the deaths of two patients supposedly waiting on trolleys in hospital corridors over Christmas and New Year, in incidents which have been linked to winter pressures.

Red Cross chief executive Mike Adamson said in a statement: “The British Red Cross is on the frontline, responding to the humanitarian crisis in our hospital and ambulance services across the country.

“We have been called in to support the NHS and help get people home from hospital and free up much needed beds.”

Adamson’s statement came as a third of England’s hospital trusts warned that high patient numbers were affecting patient care over the festive period, according to analysis of NHS England figures by the Nuffield Trust. 

Last week, it was revealed that hospitals are increasingly ‘diverting’ patients to A&E departments at other hospitals due to a lack of capacity.

The president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, Dr Taj Hassan, warned that the situation has become “intolerable” for staff. He said: “The emergency care system is on its knees, despite the huge efforts of staff who are struggling to cope with the intense demands being put upon them.”

Trusts around the country have started urging patients to stay away from A&E wherever possible unless it is an emergency or unless they have a life-threatening illness.

NHS England has also advised patients to use local pharmacies and NHS 111 for medical advice in order to help hospitals cope over the busy winter period.

(Image c. Andrew Matthews, PA Archive)

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