The British resort to self-medication in the face of the health crisis

• Patio Global A musician cursed because of two words

Who.

One in four Britons resort to self-medication due to the impossibility of making an appointment with their GP.

What.

More than seven million patients are on the waiting list at National Health Service (NHS) hospitals.

Why.

They accuse the Conservative Party of "negligence" for allowing the deterioration of the public health system.

One in four Britons resort to self-

due to the impossibility of having an appointment with the doctor.

One in six admits that

He has even sought advice "outside the medical profession" for treatment, given the "desperate" waiting list in NHS hospitals,

.

The medical authorities have sounded the alarm:

due to the lack of emergency services.

The exodus of staff has left 130,000 vacant jobs in the NHS, in a precarious state further aggravated by the wave of strikes from

nurses

, paramedics and

ambulance drivers

.

After denying for days that there was even a health crisis, the

Rishi Sunak has finally recognized that there is a problem and has included among

your five new year promises

with the goal of "cutting waiting lists and quickly getting people the medical care they need."

On Saturday he invited experts for the first time to the

and today, Monday, he will finally meet with the unions to try to alleviate the strikes.

But the snowball has gone to more

in the middle of the harsh winter

, with the flu and Covid as a perpetual threat (36,000 new cases in the last week of the year).

Pharmacies are depleting their stocks due to the fever of the so-called

(literally,

) which is reaching extremes

to the gums

The Savanta ComRes survey, which reveals the increasing difficulties of the British in receiving medical treatment, has caused a social and political uproar these days.

So alarming is the situation that doctors have publicly expressed concern about the risks of self-medication for serious conditions.

The media, meanwhile,

like that of Dr. Zoe Watson, who teaches readers of

how to take your blood pressure, how to measure and detect irregularities in your pulse, how to look in the mirror and examine the whites of your eyes or how to even look at your droppings for traces of blood.

"We live in a desperate situation where people have been left to fend for themselves and are

themselves because they can't see their GP", denounced the leader of the Liberal Democrat Party Ed Davey, who plans to fight this week in Parliament against "the national scandal caused by years of neglect of the NHS by Conservative Governments".

One in six Britons admit they have gone straight to the ER because they couldn't make an appointment with their GP, and

in the face of the growing chaos of public health.

"We understand the anguish and frustration of patients when they are unable to make an appointment, but we should not blame doctors and their teams who work hard and under extremely difficult conditions," Margaret Ikpoh, vice president of the Royal College of Medicine, said last week. of Primary Care Physicians.

"We cannot continue like this: people are receiving unworthy and unsafe treatment," said Adrian Boyle, president of the College of Emergency Medicine, in statements to

.

"We can't sit idly by and admit that this winter is going to be terrible, and that we won't do anything until next winter.

, as we are seeing every week with the delays and the problems of the emergency services".

The British Dental Association has also launched its private SOS:

due to long waiting lists.

"People in pain can't wait," said Louise Ansari of Healthwatch England.

"And we're seeing really desperate situations, like people making resin teeth and sticking them right into the gums."

To continue reading for free

Sign inSign up for free

Or

and you will have access to all the web content of El Mundo