"Wes Streeting, the health secretary, is being interviewed on on LBC. The presenter is Nick Ferrari. Streeting said the flu was putting the NHS under the worst pressure since Covid. There is a particularly aggressive strain of flu around, he said. He said he would be extremely worried about this if there were no strikes. But, with the double whammy of flu and strikes, he thinks the situation is dangerous."
"Q: If midnight is the collapse of the NHS, how close to midnight are we? One minute? Streeting says he would say that. There are only a finite number of doctors and staff. With strikes and flu and trolleys on corridor and demand going up, I don't think there is a lever I can pull ... [to] guarantee patient safety, he said."
The flu is putting the NHS under its worst pressure since Covid due to a particularly aggressive strain circulating. Strikes combined with the flu create a dangerous situation that increases risk to patients. An offer was made to the BMA to extend their strike mandate to allow strikes in January rather than before Christmas; the offer was refused. Questions were raised about how close the NHS is to collapse, noting finite numbers of doctors and staff. With strikes, rising demand, and patients on trolleys in corridors, there is little that can be done to guarantee patient safety. Concerns were also raised about children dying in temporary accommodation.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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