Jim Parkin @ParkinJim@qoto.org

@chrischirp terrifying and infuriating in equal measures. As a parent I'm terrified of my child having some kind of accident that requires hospital care. The fact that this isn't headline news every day days more about the rotten state of our media landscape than anything.

PS thanks to Bob Hawkins for producing the charts for this thread

Some of it is 2.5 years of Covid, some of it is lack of investment over years, some of it is staff burn out & cost of living combined with years of stagnant wages. Far too many NHS staff are needing food banks.

What can we do? One thing is to wear a mask in public crowded spaces where possible - reduce NHS burden by not getting sick or making others sick (regardless of which virus!).

Another is write to your MP to ask for NHS action!

And - support nurses! /END

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/nov/10/nurses-among-rising-numbers-of-workers-using-food-banks-research-shows

And finally... what is increasingly a broken health care system is - unsurprisingly - having an effect on the health of our population. Adding to the considerable number of people who report being severely affected by Long Covid (ONS reckons about 340K as of Oct 2022).

The number of working aged people economically inactive because of ill health - already increasing pre-2020 - is going up ever faster.

This is bad news for them, bad news for the NHS and bad news for our economy. 8/

This is even affecting cancer services, where waits have been steadily increasing since the start of the pandemic.

25% of patients are now waiting longer than the target of 2 weeks to see a specialist after urgent GP referral. 7/

In terms of people waiting longer than 6 weeks for diagnostic tests by type of test, these are all important tests to determine potentially serious issues. The target is 2% across the board. None of the test types are near that target. 6/

Of course, many people aren't even getting in to hospital for either inpatient or outpatient care.

1.5 million people are waiting for diagnostic tests (30% longer than 6 weeks).

Over 7 million people (1 in 8 of entire population) are waiting for treatment - the highest number ever. 5/

One of the big issues causing these long waits is that hospitals are full and finding it difficult to discharge people ready to go - often frail older people who have nowhere safe to go with a broken social care system.

About 25% of beds in general wards are occupied by adults otherwise fit to be discharged.

Just since April this year, that's an extra 300,000 days in hospital for patients staying at least a week longer than doctors thought they needed to. 4/

Once you get to A&E, waits to be seen are longer than ever. 31% of people now wait longer than 4 hours (target is 5%!).

Unsurprisingly about 5-6% of people leave before being seen - some of those really needed to be seen.

Over 8% of people wait longer than *12 hours* - up from basically 0% pre pandemic.
3/

Ambulance wait times across the board are the worst they've been for a very long time.

Graph shows category "C2" - not quite life or death, but potentially. Target is 18 minutes wait, but average is now over an hour. Almost 80 minutes in the Midlands and the SW. 2/

RT @Otto_English@twitter.com

My mother was in care during Covid. Later died. Had a socially distanced funeral.

My father in law died in the pandemic. No funeral at all.

But Matt Hancock, the guy who put the rules in - fell in love and so we should all stand round and clap him eating a camel's penis

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/Otto_English/status/1591189356257382401

There is no such thing as an "alpha male" in a wolf pack.

Unrelated wolves in captivity can form a hierarchy, but there is no evidence of this behavior in the wild.