Wes Streeting says he is ashamed of NHS winter problems

The well being secretary has mentioned some sufferers’ expertise of the NHS this winter makes him really feel “ashamed”.

Wes Streeting mentioned he had seen sufferers left crying and distressed and caught in corridors, as hospitals battle to manage.

It comes as a lot of NHS trusts declare crucial incidents as a consequence of exceptionally excessive demand in A&E.

NHS sources informed BBC Information a few dozen hospitals in England had declared main incidents, at one level on Tuesday.

Streeting informed LBC he had seen A&E sufferers confused and crying out in misery, whereas others had been being handled in corridors, throughout a latest hospital go to.

“Once I went in, they mentioned, ‘You might be right here on a reasonably good day – it isn’t too dangerous right now,'” he mentioned.

“And as I walked round these circumstances, I used to be trying round pondering, ‘This can be a good day?”‘

Streeting promised to do “every thing I can” to “guarantee that year-on-year, we see constant enchancment”.

It might “take time” – however the authorities would publish an pressing and emergency reform plan “shortly”.

“Within the meantime, I really feel genuinely distressed and ashamed, really, of a few of the issues that sufferers are experiencing and I do know that the employees of the NHS and social-care companies really feel the identical – they go to work, they slog their guts out, and it’s extremely distressing for them, seeing folks on this situation, as properly,” Streeting mentioned.

He mentioned he had additionally seen ambulance crews taking dying sufferers into hospital as a result of there was no end-of-life care out there for them in the neighborhood.

“It breaks my coronary heart,” Streeting added.

Essential incidents have been additionally declared within the East Midlands, Birmingham, Devon, Cornwall, Northamptonshire and Hampshire.

• The East Midlands Ambulance Service – which covers Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire – declared the primary crucial incident in its historical past as a consequence of a mix of “important affected person demand, strain inside hospitals and flooding”
• Well being bosses have requested folks affected by flu, Covid, norovirus or respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) to keep away from the Royal Cornwall Hospital’s A&E division in Truro
• An inflow of sufferers at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth has additionally prompted a crucial incident
• Hampshire Hospitals mentioned, as a consequence of “sustained pressures” at its Basingstoke and Winchester hospitals, it has additionally declared a crucial incident
• College Hospitals Birmingham is one other belief to have declared a crucial incident with an “distinctive quantity” of sufferers with flu requiring hospital admission
• NHS companies in Northamptonshire have additionally escalated their standing to crucial, as a consequence of what they are saying is ongoing demand, notably at Northampton and Kettering common hospitals

Essential incidents, which might final for just a few hours or a number of days, permit companies to:

• recall employees from go away
• droop non-urgent companies
• obtain assist from close by hospitals

They don’t seem to be uncommon presently of yr – about 30 hospitals declared them at one level initially of 2023.

However NHS bosses have mentioned the primary week of 2025 has been very troublesome, as excessive charges of flu, mixed with chilly climate and flooding, have induced a surge in demand.

In Scotland, medical doctors mentioned hospitals had turn out to be gridlocked and have been in the midst of a “winter disaster” too.

Dr Fiona Hunter, from the Royal School of Emergency Drugs, mentioned: “We’re working on onerous work and goodwill, and our sufferers are receiving unacceptable, undignified and unsafe care in corridors and at the back of ambulances.”