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ironborn It is horrible. It’s collapsing in slow motion. Over 100,000 jobs are vacant at any given time, so wards run half staffed and doctors work in survival mode. The waiting list exploded past 7.6 million now, meaning people can sit months or even years for operations while emergencies pile up.
In maternity, women are told their planned caesareans will be “pushed back” a day or two sometimes even a week!!! because there’s no theatre or midwives free. 1 midw for up to 4 patients at the same time during labor and untrained doctors have to step in! That is insane to me. Not some small inconvenience, it means women with diabetes, pre eclampsia or a previous scar or any other conditions are left in dangerous limbo. For years professionals have been warning. hundreds of babies die needlessly every year because targets to improve safety were simply abandoned, not just not met, it is completely abondoned. Litigation bills now run into the tens of billions, a price for pretty preventable tragedies
In A\&E, people over there lie on trolleys for 12 hours or more waiting for a bed. Ambulances are stuck outside for over 1.6 million wasted hours a year, crews watching their patients deteriorate. It costs hundreds of lives every single week, that’s like a major disaster happening in silence, every week of the year. Other than in seminars and workshops no one actually bothers addressing it, just descriptive talking points.
As a worker in systems like that the cruelty is the helplessness. Doctors know what their patient needs but can’t deliver it because the resources simply aren’t there. And female doctors in particular carry double the suicide risk of women outside medicine, a mix of too much sexism, blame culture, and moral injury. And of course little to no psychiatric care tending to their specific conditions.
Canada and other countries have waits and shortages too, but you don’t see caesareans routinely delayed days, or hundreds of deaths every week tied directly to waiting times. That’s what makes England stand out and that's why I wouldn't like working there. it isn’t just stretched, it’s failing people in real time. There are other sever problems but I won't get to that. It would require an entire discussion, days worth. And I don't have that kind of time nor motivation.
