A nurse has been filmed warning patients in an overcrowded A&E department that they may be forced to wait up to 13 hours to see a doctor.
The video, which has garnered more than 1 million views, was filmed on Monday evening at Harlow A&E, run by the NHS at Princess Alexandra Hospital in Essex. Health Secretary Sajid Javid has since said the images “are not what anyone wants to see”.
The nurse can be heard saying in the waiting room that there are already 170 patients in the department, with 90 more patients waiting to be seen at that time.
She says in the crowded room, “Our current waiting time for a doctor is seven-and-a-half hours. because the waits will arrive at 12 or 1 p.m.
“There are currently no beds in the trust. We are trying to make more room if we can, but if people are admitted, there is a possibility that they will stay at A&E at night.
“We’ll do our best to make you feel comfortable, we’ll do our best to take care of you, but don’t expect you to go straight to a room because that might not happen.”
He added that anyone who feels “especially bad” should talk to receptionists and asked relatives to go home, as the department “was out of space” while trying to keep social distancing “to a minimum.” .
“No beds”: A&E nurse warns of 13-hour wait at Essex hospital – video
After showing the clip to 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 believe that between 11 and 13 million people stayed away from the NHS due to the pandemic.
“Many of these people are showing up, many of them at A&E, and we are seeing very high levels of demand. This is a real challenge for the NHS across the system.”
The video was shared on Twitter by Gary Sitton, whose son-in-law visited the A&E department after a car accident. He said some patients “verbally abused” the nurse.
Sitton wrote: “This is PAH Harlow on the afternoon of June 6, 2022. My son-in-law visited A&E after being involved in an RTA.
“She left in pain after hearing the nurse’s announcement. Others verbally abused her. This is our NHS on its knees after 12 years of underfunding.”
He added: “It is a tragedy and I feel a mixture of sadness and anger. When I read that a spokesman for the Prime Minister was promising an ‘Netflix’ NHS, I decided it was time to drop a real bomb on his shit. “
Last week it was revealed that the NHS has lost almost 25,000 beds across the UK over the last decade.
Sign up for First Edition, our free daily newsletter, every weekday morning at 7:00 BST
A report from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine found that at least 13,000 more beds were urgently needed to address “unsafe” bed occupancy levels and “grim” waiting times.
Patients were increasingly “distressed” by long waiting times, the university said, as well as NHS staff facing rising levels of exhaustion, exhaustion and moral injury.
In April, the West Yorkshire Acute Trust Association, which covers six hospitals in West Yorkshire and Harrogate, asked patients to attend to their local urgency and urgency only in “genuine life-threatening situations”.
Stephanie Lawton, Director of Trust Operations at Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS, said: “We are currently experiencing extremely high demand for our emergency care services and have seen a significant increase in attendance at our emergencies.
“Our teams are working hard to assess and treat patients as quickly and effectively as possible to reduce delays, prioritizing those who need it most.”