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”
Britain April 30th 2022
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- Brexit has clobbered smaller businesses
- The NHS is in seriously poor shape
- Piers Morgan is the face of TalkTV
- Britain’s student-finance system is being overhauled, again
- In Britain, internal migration is out of favour
- Sir Keir Starmer, the cynical leader
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