By Elliott Hammond, Grace Shaw, Amalie Meland, Jai-nih Sanderson and Tia Rawlings
NHS waiting times in the UK are increasing as well as people’s concerns for their health issues, as they worry they will not receive treatment fast enough or not at all.
Meri Borisova, a 23-year-old receptionist, went to A&E with a kidney infection. She waited four hours just to be seen by a nurse. “She told me told me to take some paracetamol and go home, or wait up to eight
hours to be seen by a doctor,” she said.
Millions are still on the waiting lists for hospital treatment as a result of the pandemic. Hospitals are still suffering with backlogs from before the pandemic.
Nurse Kim Davies, 43, said: “Patients that have been referred to the hospital with suspected cancer should be seen within two weeks.”
However, this is not the case, she said. “In some departments this is taking so much longer, maybe up to six weeks.”
Many members of staff are leaving their jobs due to being underpaid, experiencing work-related stress and being unsatisfied with their jobs in general.
Unfortunately, unless more staff are recruited; waiting times are unlikely to decrease any time soon. With Brexit and the current government considering even more curbs on immigration, the future doesn’t look rosy.
Leave a Reply