Nottingham MP Nadia Whittome has called for the Prime Minister to 'do something' about the NHS after one of her elderly constituents spent 41 hours in A&E. The Labour MP for Nottingham East attributed '13 years of underfunding' to the incident.
She then called for Rishi Sunak to stop 'blaming the nurses' striking to save the 'collapsing NHS' during Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons on Wednesday, January 11. The Prime Minister responded by saying that this was not a time to blame anybody.
In a tweet posted later that day, Ms Whittome wrote that her constituent waited for 12 hours in a wheelchair followed by 29 hours on a bed in a corridor. She went on to say that this crisis is "the Tories' own making".
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During the round of questions in the Commons, Ms Whittome said: "A 95-year-old constituent of mine spent 41 hours in A&E. When will the Prime Minister admit that the NHS is collapsing because of 13 years of underfunding and do something about it instead of blaming the nurses striking to save it?"
In response, the Prime Minister said: "First of all I'm very sorry to hear about the experience of the elderly constituent that the Honourable Lady raised and my sympathies go out to her. But this is not about blaming anybody.
"This is about recognising that the NHS, whether in Scotland, whether in Wales, where it is run by the Labour Party, whether here in England is facing pressure as we recover from a pandemic. The right thing to do is to have a clear plan in place to work with doctors and nurses to ease that pressure."
It follows a similar incident last year when a 95-year-old Veteran was forced to wait 26 hours in a Queen’s Medical Centre corridor for a hospital bed. Stanley Solomons was admitted to hospital at 11am on Sunday, October 16, after staff at his nursing home became worried about his health.
He was taken in an ambulance with blue lights to the QMC and was eventually given a bed on Monday (October 17) afternoon. The latest incident comes after a tough winter period on the health service.
Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH), which runs the Queen's Medical Centre and Nottingham City Hospital, has just stood down from a critical incident after winter pressures on the Emergency Department, with flu in particular a significant factor.
NUH has since apologised following Ms Whittome's comments, saying that waiting in a corridor was "not ideal".
Dr Keith Girling, Medical Director at Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) Trust, said: “We are very sorry that in recent weeks some patients have experienced long waits in the Emergency Department for a bed to become available – this is not the care or experience we want for any of our patients. We know that waiting in a corridor is not ideal and we apologise for the times when this has been necessary.
"All patients waiting for transfer to a ward are regularly assessed and receive ongoing care from our clinical teams. Our Emergency Department has been extremely busy with high numbers of people attending, while our wards are struggling to discharge people who are ready to go home so we can free up beds.
“Along with our partners in health and social care, we are introducing a number of measures to get patients in and out of our hospitals safely and quickly. We ask the public to continue to help us by thinking carefully about which NHS services they use. If you are unsure, visit NHS 111 online and they will direct you to the best place for your care.”
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