Massive concerns about standards of acute medical care in hospitals
The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, and other medical bodies, have warned they have "never been more concerned about standards of acute medical care across hospitals in the UK than we are now."
A collection of medical organisations have spoken of their concerns of the standard of acute hospital care across the UK.
In recent weeks health boards throughout Scotland have reminded the public of the pressure they are under, urging people only to come to A&E in emergency situations.
Some have been asking the relatives of patients to consider helping out by caring for their loved ones at home - if they no longer require hospital care - to help free up beds.
And in some cases boards have been forced to plea on social media for staff who are not working to come in anyway due to "extreme level of pressure".
Now a joint statement has been released by the President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, Prof Andrew Elder, the President of the society for acute medicine, Dr Tim Cooksley and SAM Scotland representative, Dr Dan Beckett.
They are calling for all governments of the UK to get together urgently to find a way of improving the situation.
The statement says: "The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (RCPE) and the Society for Acute Medicine (SAM) have never been more concerned about standards of acute medical care across hospitals in the UK than we are now. At no point in the pandemic has the situation been as difficult. Whilst COVID 19 has not left us, and influenza is now contributing, these infections are not the primary cause of the problems."
It continues:
"With patients waiting many, many hours to be assessed and treated, sometimes in ambulances queueing outside our hospitals, the maxim that our patients should receive “the right care, in the right place, at the right time” has never been further away from the reality of what is actually being provided.
"This is an issue central to patient safety and quality of care – the core values the RCPE and SAM represent and that all in the NHS seek to safeguard. If the current situation is not a crisis in acute care we ask our governments to define what they believe a crisis to be.
"Our Fellows and Members work in acute hospitals across the UK and fully concur with the statements already made by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine regarding the seriousness of the current situation.
"We thank all healthcare staff in the NHS for their incredible work in recent weeks and in the weeks to come and offer both of our organisations full support to all governments of the United Kingdom to discuss urgently what steps can be taken to improve matters for our patients."