Unfortunately, thousands of patients in the UK are dying because of delays and insufficient beds in overcrowded hospitals, claims a new research.
The research, conducted by a group of NHS doctors concluded that almost 5,500 deaths in the past three years were a result of the person spending too much on a trolley in the A&E unit.
This data claims that 5,449 individuals died because they waited anywhere between 6 and 11 hours to be placed in a hospital bed.
For the Patients Association, these findings are deeply shocking and worrying and they blame the NHS for the deaths because of their underfunding.
People Are Waiting too Long in Hospitals & Dying
According to the research, every 1 in 83 people who wait more than 6 hours in the A&E die due to the delay in specialist care for their health problem.
These results are in a way an embarrassment for the PM Boris Johnson who has been facing pressure to address the NHS crisis in his campaign.
The PM was criticized for not looking at the photo of a 4-year-old boy who was lying on the Leeds General Infirmary floor that a journalist was trying to show him.
The PM was also accused of not showing empathy after he tried to put the phone of the journalist in his pocket and tried to refocus the conversation towards Tory investment in the NHS.
According to Jeremy Corbyn, this is an example of what’s happening with their NHS and the situation is awful for the little boy and his family and how they were treated.
He claims that there are a large number of hospitals where patients are at high risk due to lack of staff, lack of equipment, and insufficient maintenance of the hospitals.
Corbyn further adds that this is a severe problem and a political one in terms of how the NHS is funded.
How Was the Research Conducted?
The research which associated deaths with lack of hospital beds was led by Dr Cliff Man and Dr Chris Moulton.
They analyzed the care which 4 million people who came to the A&E since 2016 received and concluded that 5,449 deaths were entirely triggered by the long wait and not by the health problem of the patient.
This is the first research in the world which assessed the risk of death for trolley patients by the hours waited.
In a comment for the research, Dr Moulton says that it’s an ideal example of the delay in emergency departments and their danger for the patients and a major cause of poor patient experience.
He claims that emergency doctors like himself often emphasize that delay in emergencies are bad for patients and need to be avoided as much as possible.
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