Leading emergency doctors fear for safety of A&E patients this winter, survey shows

LEADING emergency doctors fear for the safety of A&E patients this winter, a survey shows.

A total of 94 per cent feel people are already coming to harm because of the conditions.

Another 87 per cent are not confident their department will cope well this winter.

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) also highlighted that 83 per cent of patients have been treated in corridors and half in ambulances outside hospitals.

RCEM president Dr Adrian Boyle said: “Clinicians are worried and patients are unsafe.

“Winter is coming, and it looks like we are ­facing a massive crisis is every part of the UK.

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"This is a stark warning from those on the front line.

“We cannot just ignore winter and our patients.

“Our patients, each one vulnerable and sick, in need of care and comfort, each one someone’s mum, dad, gran or grandad, condemned to degrading and dehumanising so called ‘corridor care’.

“This euphemism, in reality, means people being stranded for hours on trolleys or chairs.

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“And as every hour ticks by, the associated risk of those people dying as a result increases.”

He added: “Let’s remember we are talking about people, and a workforce running on fumes trying to do their best.

“All this with the backdrop of a Government telling them they need to work harder and more effectively, but which has not invested any more resources for these winter months.

“In the Budget there was nothing to address or ease the pressures in A&Es this winter, no increase in bed numbers, no added support for social care, which could keep people out of hospital in the first place or allow them to leave when they are well enough.

“The Government may have written off winter, but we haven’t. We will keep highlighting the harm, and what should be done to eradicate it, and holding them to account for the unavoidable and unacceptable risk our patients are being exposed to.”

An NHS England spokesman said: “This winter is likely to be another challenging one.”

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