NHS pressure 'unbearable', doctors warn Rishi Sunak as PM tells him to take action

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The current pressure on the NHS is 'unbearable and unsustainable', leading doctors have said, amid warnings that delays in emergency care could lead to death of up to 500 people each week.

A Welsh health board declared a critical incident on Monday as it tackles an 'unprecedented' rise in the number of patients, as other hospital trusts called on the public to not go to A&E wards unless their condition is life threatening. health Steve Barclay as he issued a stark warning of the scale of the problem.

Calling on the government to "step up and take immediate action" to resolve the crisis, he said the silence of the No 10 on the offer of talks with the BMA over staff shortages and other issues was "deafening".

He added: "It is dishonest for the Prime Minister to talk to 'support the NHS' in his New Year's message, when his own health secretary fails to discuss er of how this crisis can be resolved. that the current situation in A&E departments is "unbearable" as he called on the government to urgently deliver a plan for the NHS workforce.

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine has also doubled down on his claim that between 300 and 500 people die each week from urgent care problems, as he warned against trying to 'discredit' the figure.

Ian Higginson , vice-president of the college, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "If you're on the front line you know this is a long-standing issue. It's not a short-term thing.

"These are real numbers, and I'm afraid we'll hear of attempts to hijack and manipulate this data and discredit it. I think if we hear this we have to say 'No, it's spin',” he added.

This comes after The Independent revealed internal NHS data showing the crisis in A&E departments has been linked to more than 15,000 deaths in the past 18 months - up to 500 patients a week.

Some health chiefs have called for caution on Monday, with...