Britain | When the applause fades

The NHS is in seriously poor shape

Britons are starting to criticise an organisation they used to clap for

MANY DIAGNOSES have been offered for the malaise racking the National Health Service (NHS). Like lots of 74-year-olds, its vital signs are poor. It has a backlog of 6.2m people on waiting lists. There were 110,000 unfilled hospital and community-care posts in December—a figure that included 8,000 doctors and almost 40,000 nurses. The number of people waiting over 12 hours for admission in A&E is around ten times higher than it was pre-pandemic. As Kevin O’Kane, a consultant in acute medicine, says: “The situation is bad and it’s about to get worse.”

This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “When the applause fades”

How rotten is Russia’s army?

From the April 30th 2022 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

More from Britain

Stock price information displayed on a board at the London Stock Exchange.

Britain’s brokers are diversifying and becoming less British

London’s depleted stockmarket is forcing them to change

Sculpture by Charles Jencks of DNA double helix Cambridge University.

What a buzzy startup reveals about Britain’s biotech sector

Lots of clever scientists, not enough business nous


Illustration of Kier Starmer facing away next to the stripes of the Union Jack and the stars of the EU flag

Britain’s government lacks a clear Europe policy

It should be more ambitious over getting closer to the EU


The Rachel Reeves theory of growth

The chancellor says it’s her number-one priority. We ask her what that means for Britain