A nurse was filmed warning patients in the crowded emergency department that they could be forced to wait until 1pm to see a doctor.
The video, which garnered more than 1 million views, was shot at Harlow A&E, run by the Princess Alexandra NHS Trust in Essex, on Monday night. Since then, Health Secretary Sajid Javid has said the footage “is not what anyone wants to see”.
You can hear the nurse telling the people in the waiting room that there are already 170 patients in the ward, and another 90 patients are currently waiting to be examined.
She told the crowded room: “Our current waiting time for a doctor is seven and a half hours. I will judge, by the time I get home in the morning at 8 o’clock, some of you will still be here waiting for a doctor, because the wait will be until 12 or 13 o’clock.
“There are currently no beds in the trust. We try to make more space if we can, but if people are admitted, there is a chance they will stay at A&E for the night.
“We will do our best to make you comfortable, we will do our best to take care of you, but please do not expect to go directly to the ward, because this may not happen.”
She added that anyone who felt “particularly ill” should talk to receptionists and ask relatives to go home, as the department “runs out of space” while trying to maintain social distance “as much as possible”.
No Beds: Nurse Warns of 13 Hours of Waiting at Essex Hospital – Video
After the video was shown on BBC Breakfast, the health secretary said: “Of course, this is not something anyone wants to see.
He added: “Because of the impact of Covid … we already know from our NHS estimates, we estimate that around 11 to 13 million people have stayed away from the NHS due to the pandemic.
“A lot of these people are coming forward, a lot of them in A&E, and we’re seeing very high levels of demand. This is a real challenge for the NHS throughout the system. “
The video was shared on Twitter by Gary Seton, whose son-in-law visited the emergency department after a car accident. He said some patients had “verbally abused” the nurse.
Seton wrote: “This is PAH Harlow on the evening of June 6, 2022. My son-in-law visited A&E after participating in the RTA.
“He left in pain after hearing the nurse’s message. Others verbally abused her. This is our NHS on its knees after 12 years of underfunding. “
He added: “This is a tragedy and I feel a mixture of sadness and anger. When I read that a prime minister’s spokesman was promising the NHS for Netflix, I decided it was time to drop the truth bomb on their nonsense. “
It was revealed last week that the NHS has lost almost 25,000 beds in the UK in the last decade.
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A report from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine found that at least 13,000 more beds were urgently needed to deal with “precarious” bed occupancy levels and “gloomy” waiting times.
Patients are increasingly worried about the long waiting time, the college said, as have NHS staff who are facing rising levels of burnout, exhaustion and moral injury.
In April, the West Yorkshire Sharp Trusts Association, which includes six hospitals in West Yorkshire and Harrogate, asked patients to visit their local A&E only in “real life-threatening situations.”
Stephanie Lawton, Chief Operating Officer of the Princess Alexandra NHS Trust, said: “We are currently in high demand for our emergency services and are seeing a significant increase in attendance at our emergency department.
“Our teams work hard to assess and treat patients as quickly and effectively as possible to reduce delays, giving priority to those most in need.”
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