'Patients are collapsing in the waiting room': A&E nurses speak out

The NHS is experiencing intense winter pressure, with critical incidents declared at a dozen hospitals across the UK by Wednesday.

The BBC has spoken to nurses dealing with demand in A&Es. "Patients are collapsing in the waiting room. It's just hectic," Lorraine, a nurse in Birmingham, told BBC Radio 5 Live on Tuesday.

"There's women that are 90 that have been waiting for a bed for 24 hours," she said. "We try our best but if there's no beds what can we really do? We just make the old lady as comfortable as she can, just make sure that she's okay. But there's no beds."

She said she felt sorry for paramedics who due to the lack of space in hospitals are being forced to hold patients on board for a long time. "And then when we do get them in they need a bed and there isn't one. It is really bad."

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer visited a hospital in London's south-east on Monday, revealing a new plan involving the private healthcare sector to help reduce waiting times for appointments.

But nurses like Lorraine say he needs to witness the reality of emergency wards currently. "The prime minister should actually sit in the waiting room, see the abuse that we get, the poor old ladies and pensioners, the young people that are trying to kill themselves, people collapsing, people having cardiac arrests in the waiting room," she said.

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Source: BBC News, 8 January 2025