Happening in British hospitals. Patients sleep on the floor for two days, waiting for a bed

Pictures posted by activists on social media showed patients sleeping on the floor in the accident and emergency department at Aintree University Hospital in Liverpool, Britain, as some of them had to wait for up to two days to get a bed.

In an A and E department of a Liverpool hospital, people are lying in pain on the floor, waiting hours to be seen by a doctor

This is a daily reality of the NHS crisis

(thread) pic.twitter.com/5SZXVLUwnF

— Liam Thorp (@LiamThorpECHO) December 30, 2022

And officials in the health sector in Britain warned people not to go to hospitals unless they suffer from a critical condition that threatens their lives.

These warnings come, according to media outlets, due to the "unprecedented pressures" that hospitals are experiencing in light of the continuation of strikes, and the high number of patients due to the wave of influenza and viral diseases this winter.

For days, several British labor sectors have been witnessing strikes in protest against working conditions and low wages, while the health sector is suffering greatly with the absence of thousands of nurses and paramedics in collective strikes.

Rob Galloway - a British doctor in the emergency and accident department - said he had not seen a situation similar to what is happening in hospitals throughout his 22 years of work in the department.

I've worked at A&E for 22 years & seen nothing like this before.

The NHS is in a critical state.

We need urgent action for the sake of our staff & patients.

@SteveBarclay @RishiSunak we need you to listen to those who know what's happening.

To get them to listen, pls retweet

— Rob Galloway (@DrRobgalloway) December 28, 2022

"The health sector is in critical condition, we need urgent action for our staff and patients," Galloway tweeted.

Primary care physician Rachel Clark said, "In my 14 years as a physician, I have never witnessed such horrific conditions, patients dying on carts without dignity, screaming and groaning in the hallways, horrible overcrowding, desperation, crying staff, abject misery."

In 14 years as a doctor I've never known such horrific conditions.

Patients dying on trolleys with zero dignity.

Or screaming & moaning in the corridors.

Dickensian overcrowding, total implosion.

Despair.

Weeping staff.

Object misery.

Do you care at all @Jeremy_Hunt?

@SteveBarclay?

— Rachel Clarke (@doctor_oxford) December 30, 2022

Due to the crowded departments and the lack of beds, patients are treated in ambulances, and the paramedics themselves deal with cases inside the hospital due to the lack of medical staff.

In Aintree Hospital, paramedics can be seen tending to patients inside the A and E because there is no one else available to do it.

Those patients are lined up on rows of trolleys in the packed department pic.twitter.com/nER1U3zJqA

— Liam Thorp (@LiamThorpECHO) December 30, 2022

In turn, the British writer George Monbiot recounted his experience during a visit to a hospital in his area, describing what he saw of the crowding of auditors and ambulances loaded with patients because there were no beds for them inside as a natural effect of the austerity policy pursued by the government.

Last night I checked into the emergency department at my local hospital*.

I saw first hand what has happened to the NHS.

However much you read, it doesn't prepare you for the terrible reality.

This thread tells a now-ordinary but - in this rich nation - almost unbelievable story.

— George Monbiot (@GeorgeMonbiot) December 30, 2022

Starving to death in British hospitals

In March 2103, the British newspaper "Sunday Express" revealed that at least 1,165 patients had died of starvation in British government hospitals over the past four years.

According to the report, 4 patients suffered from a severe shortage of water in their bodies, according to their death certificates, for every patient who lost his life due to malnutrition.

In 2011, 291 patients died in British government hospitals as a result of acute malnutrition, and 43 patients lost their lives due to starvation. During the same period, 5,558 patients were discharged from hospitals suffering from malnutrition, at a rate of more than 100 per week.

According to the same source, an investigation showed last July that a cancer patient died of thirst in St. George's Hospital, south London, despite his appeal to nurses to provide him with water.

The newspaper quoted critics as saying that food and drink are often placed out of reach of vulnerable patients, while British charities called for urgent action to reduce the number of deaths caused by hunger and thirst in government hospitals.