A&E doctor's emotional plea to Sir Keir Starmer over 'national scandal' - as thousands of patients die
13.01.2024 - 07:59
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
Vulnerable, elderly patients waiting more than a day for a bed; patients at the end of their lives dying in A&E while they’re waiting for a bed to pass away in dignity; and an estimated ‘2,000 excess deaths in November’ alone.
Silence fell as a Greater Manchester consultant laid bare the grave state of the NHS before Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer. The opposition leader visited the Manchester Evening News offices this week ahead of a widely expected election later this year.
The Labour leader took part in a Q&A session, with school children, charity workers, and some of Manchester's foremost campaigners - such as Figen Murray, the mother of Martyn Hett, killed in the Manchester Arena bombing - in the audience.
Among the wide-ranging topics – from the dangers of drill music to cracking down on knife crime – Sir Keir was faced with the stark reality of one of Greater Manchester’s experienced A&E consultants telling him that after almost three decades in emergency medicine, they know ‘the system is truly broken’.
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In a powerful speech during the session with Sir Keir, the consultant, whose anonymity the M.E.N. is protecting, explained: “I've been an A&E consultant in Greater Manchester for over 22 years now and worked through emergency medicine for nearly 30 years. I can honestly say, and this is the feeling of my colleagues as well nationally, that the urgent and emergency care system is truly broken.
“Things have never been as bad as we're now experiencing on a day to day basis. Routinely I will go into work and I'll see elderly, vulnerable patients on trolleys in the corridor, many of them waiting for over 24 hours for a bed from