Rishi Sunak tells us that there is no crisis in the NHS (Doctors criticise ‘delusional’ Rishi Sunak for denying NHS is in crisis, 3 January). I have just spent a week in hospital following an emergency. I managed to get to A&E; four hours into my wait to be seen, I collapsed and was taken into a treatment room. A stay in hospital was needed. Two hours into my wait for a bed, I had to relinquish my position in the treatment room for a chair as someone else needed to be treated in the room. At 11.30pm that night a bed was found, I was stabilised and checked, and told that I would have the vital procedure the following day. This was cancelled, and the next day allocated. This too was cancelled. Four times, in fact. Nowhere in the chain was there an act of deliberate neglect or prevarication. I was in the real world of NHS 2023, starved of resources to cope with demand.
Through my ordeal I saw fellow human beings stretched to the very limit, yet still managing to give me gentle care and the highest quality treatment. The staff at the hospital represent the best of humanity. Every person – paramedics, A&E, ward staff and medics – faced a mass of sick people all needing individual attention and crammed into every available space. The exhausted looks on the faces of staff will stay with me for ever.
It isn’t until you need it that you realise how vandalised and broken our health system has become. Not enough medics, not enough nurses, not enough beds, not enough equipment. This government has stealthily undermined each of us by starving our health service of resources over the past decade.
Michael Newman
Shefford, Bedfordshire
• What our government has chosen to do to our NHS is not just unforgivable, but criminal. I recently had to take my daughter, who is disabled with chronic respiratory issues, to A&E. I have never seen a paediatric waiting room so full, with children lying on the floor, and paramedics bringing patients in and finding nowhere to put them. As a parent, it was terrifying.
We now live in a state of fear. My child can rapidly go from coping well with a chest infection to severely ill. She regularly needs admitting to hospital, and we know that the key to keeping her alive is being seen and given treatment as soon as possible. Now, in 2023, we know that this is not possible.
The defunding of the NHS is a political choice by a government that chooses to serve the rich. It is privatising our healthcare service. It can’t comprehend that a service can exist for the good of the people, rather than to make a profit.
Now up to 500 people are dying each week purely because of delays in A&E. How many more are dying because of the horrendous waiting lists for treatment? How can these politicians make decisions that kill people and not be held accountable?
It’s not your fault for going to A&E because you couldn’t get a GP appointment. It’s not your neighbour’s fault because they emigrated here. It’s not nurses’ fault because they campaign for a living wage. It is the fault of a government, that chooses to risk lives in the pursuit of money.
Rachel Curtis
Ellington, Northumberland
