Covid-19 patients left in ambulances in carparks as UK hospitals struggle with new admissions tvnz.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from tvnz.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
A patient being taken out of an ambulance in a queue outside the Royal London hospital. Photograph: Hollie Adams/Getty Images
It was when Claire was walking around central London before Christmas that it hit home how bad the situation would be in her hospital over the festive period. As hordes of shoppers gathered, the “penny dropped”, bringing into sharp focus the enormity of what the NHS would be facing this winter.
Her fears have become reality. The intensive care doctor says she and her colleagues have returned to the “fire fighting” they did at the start of the pandemic. It is a case of NHS staff not eating or being able to go to the toilet for a whole shift, with the number of people requiring her help growing by the day.
Eye of the storm’: As U.K. coronavirus cases hit record high, health-care workers are overwhelmed Adam Taylor
Replay Video Doctors and nurses across Britain are sounding the alarm as confirmed cases of covid-19 reach record highs, with experts urging the government to implement a stricter lockdown to prevent the health system from being overwhelmed. Simon Stevens, chief executive of the National Health Service (NHS) in England, told reporters on Tuesday that hospitals were “back in the eye of the storm” as new cases surged across Europe and Britain. He said more must be done to ease the burden on health-care workers.