UK Sounds the Alarm Over NHS’ ‘Biggest Crisis in History’
Healthcare workers hold placards at a picket line outside St Mary’s Hospital in west London on December 15, 2022.
British healthcare is currently plagued by industrial action amid the rising cost of living. But even before strikes took place, the UK healthcare system was already under immense pressure with personnel resigning and seven million waiting for routine operations. More than 70% of the British public support current industrial action by NHS nurses, an Ipsos poll has concluded.The strikes come as more than 40,000 NHS employees left their job in the UK over the past 12 months to the end of June 2022 following a seven-year public sector pay freeze introduced under PM David Cameron. Newly-qualified nurses earn $33,300, meaning that they are unable to pay their bills, especially amidst soaring inflation. Some reports even suggest that nurses have no other choice but to eat patients` leftover food.The Royal College of Nursing – the biggest nurse`s trade union – is demanding a 19% pay rise for its members. According to the British health secretary, this would cost roughly £10 billion per year and is not affordable.The industrial action that took place this week was the first in NHS history, and will continue for several days. Over the next two weeks, ambulance workers are also going to strike, the first nationwide industrial action in the emergency services for 30 years. NHS executives have already stated that as many hospital beds as possible should be freed up ahead of ambulance staff strikes since they will cause “extensive disruption”. As all spheres of the UK are rattled by weeks-long strikes and the cost-of-living crisis, the British healthcare system appears to be among the worst affected, with concerns rising that the NHS is currently in its “biggest crisis in its history.”
“The NHS is in the biggest crisis in its history. People are finding it impossible to get a GP appointment or operation when they need one. In an emergency, there’s no guarantee an ambulance will arrive on time, if one arrives at all,” Wes Streeting, a Labour MP and shadow health secretary, has stated.
The strikes in the UK come amidst soaring inflation that hit a 40-year high. According to the Bank of England, inflation could reach 13% next year. The economic crisis started during the COVID-19 pandemic and was aggravated by anti-Russian sanctions imposed against Moscow over its military operation in Ukraine that backfired on western economies, including the UK.However, it’s not just the strikes that the UK healthcare system has to deal with. Various infections are on the rise in the country. Flu appears to have become a bigger problem than COVID-19, as experts from the UK Health Security Agency provided figures that show that the rate of flu admissions was 6.8 per 100,000 people in the week until December 11. Admissions for COVID-19 were 6.6 per 100,000 people.Aside from soaring flu, the NHS faces a rise in incidents of the bacterial infection strep A, especially among children. Professor Susan Hopkins – chief medical advisor at the UK Health Security Agency revealed that the country risked a shortage of penicillin – a key antibiotic to treat strep A. This alarmed British society and the government had to act within 24 hours to allow pharmacists to supply different forms of penicillin. Strep A has already killed more than 70 people in UK this year, including 19 children.Experts from the King`s Fund – an independent think tank – have pointed out that the British healthcare system currently has to weather many challenges at the same time.
“It’s difficult to think of a time when the NHS has been under this amount of sustained pressure,” explained Sally Warren from the King's Fund.
