Doctor reveals to James O'Brien the terrifying realities of the NHS

10 January 2020, 12:04

This doctor explains to James O'Brien why the NHS is in such a bad state that next "we'll be laying out the dead in the streets."

Nick from Hackney has been a GP for 30 years said, "We've lost a quarter of the GP full time equivalent workforce since 2012, so in seven years we are 10,218 GP full time equivalents down.

"So we have the lowest funding per capita in comparable countries, the lowest beds per capita, nearly the lowest doctors and way below the average nurses per capita to all comparable countries. So you've got queues in corridors.

"Now we're entering a period which is really truly unprecedented."

James interjected that unprecedented is a big word and he wouldn't expect a doctor to use it lightly.

"There have been steady worst performances each winter but this is unprecedented in the sense of in the last month the number of people waiting on trollies from the decision to admit to admission for more than 12 hours has increased by over 100% in one month.

"It's gone from about 1000 to over 2000 and a year ago it was 284."

James asked: "What's going to happen next Nick, and don't frighten my listeners?"

"We're going to lay out the dead in the streets, I think is what's going to happen next," Nick said, "dramatic of course but what does it take for people to wake up and do something? This has been normalised, James."

James agreed and read out a listener's text he found problematic; "attitudes like that will see the NHS turned into a shell of what it was originally envisioned to be."

Nick said, "People will absorb misdirection and propaganda - that's what's been happening."

James agreed that every time a problem is highlighted, "there's someone there to tell them it's all the fault of foreigners and time-wasters."