The British government is called upon to deal with the “crisis” in the public health system

London, Thanasis Gavos

Opposition parties and health organizations are mounting pressure on the UK government to take action to control the “crisis” in the NHS public health system.

The government has faced a fresh wave of criticism from main opposition Labor after the head of the emergency doctors association said up to 500 patients a week were dying because of ambulance and hospital delays.

Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting said it was “totally inexplicable” that no minister had come forward publicly to explain what the government was doing to control this crisis.

According to Mr Streeting, the NHS is actively dissuading citizens from going to the accident and emergency units of state hospitals because there is no room to care for other patients. As he added, the resulting sense of danger is scaring citizens across the country ahead of a difficult winter.

The Liberal Democrat party even called for an emergency convocation of the House of Commons, which normally returns to sittings on Monday.

Lib Dem MP Daisy Cooper has called on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to declare a “major national incident” so that there is better coordination between all relevant agencies.

But also the President of the British Medical Association, Professor Phil Banfield, asked the government to “step up and take immediate action”, even warning that “the survival of Britain’s health service is on a razor’s edge”.

He added that it was true that patients were dying when they could have lived and called the strain on the NHS “unbearable and unsustainable”.

Figures from NHS England show that one in three patients wait more than half an hour to get off an ambulance, one in three wait more than four hours to see a doctor in an A&E and four in ten wait in hospital corridors for more than four hours for to find a room.

The dire situation is attributed to a combination of shortages in the NHS and social care sector, exacerbated by Brexit, underfunding and outbreaks of illness, mainly flu.

Last week the number of flu patients treated in state hospitals was 3,746. A total of 13% of hospital beds were occupied by influenza or coronavirus carriers.

The head of the UK Health Protection Agency, Professor Susan Hopkins, has asked citizens who are ill to stay at home or wear a mask if they have to go out. He also asked parents not to send children to school if they are unwell with fever.

All this while the NHS waiting list for appointments or operations has reached a record number of 7.2 million patients.

Asked about the situation in morning interviews, Transport Secretary Mark Harper said he recognized the “tremendous pressures” NHS staff are under, but argued the government had provided increased resources to the health system.

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