ब्रिटेन के डाक्टरों का कहना है कि देश के अस्पतालों की स्थति यूक्रेन से भी ख़राब है।
ब्रिटेन के एक सम्मानित डाक्टर पाॅल रैनसम कहते हैं कि हमारे अस्पतालों की हालत यूक्रेन और श्रीलंका से भी ख़राब हो चुकी है। उन्होंने कहा कि मैंने यूक्रेन, जार्जिया, ़जिम्बाबवे और श्रीलंका में बीमारों को अस्पतालों के गलियारों में पड़े हुए देखा है।
इस समय ब्रिटेन की स्वास्थ्य व्यवस्था पूरी तरह से चरमरा गई है। स्वास्थ्यकर्मियों की हड़ताल और एंबुलेंस की हड़ताल के कारण ब्रिटेन में मरीज़ अस्पतालों के फर्श और गलियारों में पड़े हुए हैं। इलाज के अभाव में वहां पर हर सप्ताह लगभग 500 लोग मर रहे हैं।
ब्रिटेन में मेडिकल सेवा की स्थति का अनुमान इस बात से लगाया जा सकता है कि वहां पर अगर कोई किसी डाक्टर को दिखाना चाहता है तो उसको समय बहुत देर से मिल रहा है। कहीं-कहीं पर तो इसमें महीनों का समय लग रहा है।
ब्रिटेन में स्वास्थ्य सेवाओं की स्थति उस समय और अधिक ख़राब हो गई जब वेतन बढ़ाने और काम-काज की स्थति में सुधार की मांग को लेकर वहां पर नर्से और एंबुलेंस स्टाफ़ हड़ताल पर चले गए। कुछ लोगों का कहना है कि इस समय ब्रिटेन में स्वास्थ्य सेवाओं की जो ख़राब स्थति है वह योरोप में किसी भी देश में फिलहाल नहीं है।
बताया जाता है कि ब्रिटेन में अस्पतालों और स्वास्थ्य सेवाओं का संचालन राष्ट्रीय स्वास्थ्य सेवाओं के माध्यम से किया जाता है। सरकारों द्वारा अस्पतालों के फंड घटाने और कर्मचारियों की छटनी के बाद ब्रिटेन में हालत ख़राब हुई है।
Freddie
@FreddieBailey96
Britain has 164k hospital beds.
Germany has 650k hospital beds.
Delays at UK hospitals are putting hundreds of lives a week at risk.
Concerns are now mounting for Britain's healthcare as it buckles under what many call its worst ever crisis pic.twitter.com/jSPKRAQTli
— TRT World (@trtworld) January 10, 2023
Britain People 🕊️
@Britain_People
▪️Highest taxation for 70 years
▪️National debt over £2 trillion
▪️Public services in ruin
▪️Axed 22,000 NHS Beds & 140 A&E Hospitals
▪️Infrastructure crumbling
▪️Poverty skyrocketing
One question. Where has all the money gone?
Barclay and Sunak both silent and missing.
Britain’s NHS nightmare: How COVID-19, cost-cutting and burnout pushed the UK’s health system to the brink
In a frantic hospital hall in northern England, a 92-year-old woman lay unwell on a trolley waiting for 33 hours to be taken to a bed.
She was so distressed she asked her family to let her die.
This was just one of dozens of horror stories reported in the UK media in recent weeks, as the country’s healthcare system comes under deep strain.
British doctors have been speaking out, some risking their jobs to condemn the “critical” state of the National Health Service (NHS).
The NHS, often hailed as the pride of Britain, provides health services that everyone living in the UK can use without being asked to pay the full cost of the service.
“Emergency medicine in the NHS is facing one of its most challenging times in our history,” Dr Ian Higginson, vice-president at the Royal College of Emergency Medicine told ABC News.
“We are having to treat patients in corridors, which is unsafe and undignified for those who need care.”
There have been reports of patients waiting 24 hours to get a hospital bed, and of families forced to drive the unwell and elderly to the hospital in a state of emergency because no ambulance arrived.
“We’re unable to offload the ambulances who are bringing more patients to us, so they’re queuing in our car parks,” Dr Higginson said.
Ian Higginson 🌈
@RCEM_VP
Meanwhile in the real world away from the bubbles ED nurses, HCAs and doctors have been working in freezing cold car parks, supporting paramedics who should be on the road, looking after patients in ambulances who should be in our EDs @RCollEM @RCEMpresident
“Then we can’t get the ambulances out to patients who need them because they’re stuck in our car parks.”
Emily Ball, a GP in the north-west of England, has a grim assessment of the state of the NHS.
“I think the NHS is not just in a crisis, I think it’s gone through the crisis and has now completely collapsed,” she told ABC News.
‘A humanitarian crisis’ in Britain
NHS bosses have pointed to a winter spike in COVID-19 and flu cases that have put a deep strain on a system already struggling with staff strikes and lengthy backlogs.
About 13 per cent of hospital beds were being used for flu and COVID-19 patients, according to the December statistics from NHS England.
At least one in three patients who presented to the emergency departments waited four hours to be seen, according to November NHS figures.
“We are talking about national state of emergency, a humanitarian crisis,” said Dr Ball, who is also a spokesperson for the Every Doctor advocacy group.
Through her work with the organisation she had heard a number of “horrible stories” from inside hospitals, along with her own struggles to get her patients the care they need.
“We hear people are at this point lying on the floor of [emergency departments], there are not even chairs or beds left for them when they arrive,” Dr Ball said.
“We’ve had stories of people having to examine patients in cupboards, and of eight-plus-hour-waits in the back of ambulances.”
Hospital staff are under “incredible strain”, Dr Ian Higginson said.
“We’re having real problems with staff morale, moral injury and moral distress, which is causing problems with our workforce.”
The problems being experienced by the NHS now “were avoidable”, said Dr Higginson.
He said the British situation should serve as a warning to other health services around the world — including Australia.
How did it get so bad?
Some may find it surprising that the situation in UK hospitals could now be worse than at the height of the pandemic.
“The whole health service, along with the whole country, was orientated towards that single problem during the peak of the pandemic,” Dr Higginson said.
“What’s happening now is that we’ve got a health service which has been under-invested in, a social care system which is in real trouble, plus some extra stresses from COVID-19 and influenza, all coalescing.”
Kerri Baker
@KerriBaker20
I have never in 20 years of medicine seen the hospital front door the way it was today.
A huge thank you to our team today who gave every ounce of energy and civility at a time when we are all absolutely depleted. I genuinely don’t know how everyone did it.
Dr Ball said she still has confidence that patients who are found to have serious illnesses are often seen very quickly.
But she said it is those with less urgent issues who often end up waiting, sometimes weeks or even months.
“General practice was already kind of on its knees, I think pre-pandemic,” Dr Ball said.
More than 7 million people are currently on NHS waiting lists in England, which is about 12 per cent of the population.
“We have a growing population, massive GP shortages which have been known about for a very, very long time, and after the pandemic wait times for surgeries and screening just blew out.
“There’s been this growing amount of work to do with a dwindling workforce,” said Dr Ball.
Other countries should make sure not to sleepwalk into a similar scenario, said Dr Higginson who worked in New Zealand and Australia for many years.
“I think try and learn the lessons from this, it’s really important to face up to these issues and try and get on top of them early.
“Let things get out of hand the way we did in the UK and it’s very difficult to recover — because there aren’t any quick fixes.”
