HCSA - the hospital doctors’ union has called for the government to reverse plans to loosen Covid restrictions at Christmas or risk a ‘truly gruesome winter’ for the NHS, patients and staff:
HCSA – the hospital doctors’ union President Dr Claudia Paoloni said: “Germany has more beds and more staff than our underfunded NHS yet has announced a Christmas lockdown. The UK’s failure to do the same will see hospitals buckling, the mass cancellation of non-Covid work and propel us into an avoidable emergency.
“If the government is again caught flat-footed in the face of a new, faster-spreading strain of Covid-19 we risk a truly gruesome winter for patients and hospital staff.
“Hospitals across the country have already seen a huge influx of Covid patients. Even in the north the figures for Covid bed occupancy remain near the level they were at when the November lockdown was announced. In the rest of the country things are far, far worse - in some areas more than 300 percent higher.
“The current tier system has proven woefully inadequate and should be torn up and tightened. Looser restrictions at Christmas is now a fantasy position which if not reversed threatens to become a winter nightmare for the NHS, patients and staff.
“This isn’t alarmist or mean-spirited, it is grounded in cold, hard reality. Inaction will mean patients dying needlessly and thousands of critical cases going untreated. The government must move now, urgently, to reverse its plans.”