Rishi Sunak urged by medical association to recall parliament ‘immediately’ to discuss ‘NHS crisis’
Rishi Sunak must recall parliament “immediately” so MPs can discuss the “NHS crisis”, a leading medical organisation has said.
Writing a letter to the PM on Wednesday, Doctors’ Association UK (DAUK) – an organisation led by frontline medical staff – and its supporters said MPs must return from their festive break before Monday 9 January.
It stated: “The NHS is broken. Patients are dying and staff are suffering moral injury from the appalling conditions.
“We are desperately in need of meaningful action from our leaders and this cannot wait.
“We therefore call on the government to immediately recall members of parliament from their Christmas recess to the House of Commons to hold an emergency debate on the state of the NHS.
“All parties must put election-based strategy aside and focus on the immediate actions that can be taken to save lives.”
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In the letter, DAUK said “up to 500 people are dying each week because of delays in emergency care” and warned the PM that NHS staff are reporting “the worst conditions they have seen within the service”.
The correspondence continued: “Contrary to reports from number 10, the NHS does NOT have enough money. People are dying because of an abject refusal to invest the sums needed to pay staff and provide social care.
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GP urges government to ‘wake up and get a grip’ on NHS crisis
“The result of inaction and ignoring our voices, will be more preventable death and haemorrhaging of hard-working, experienced healthcare staff.
“Prime minister, we implore you to act TODAY, without delay.”
PM to give speech outlining priorities for the year ahead – politics latest
The letter was published just hours before Mr Sunak gave his first speech of 2023 and addressed the “challenges” in the health service, especially around A&E, saying people were “understandably anxious” after seeing long queues of ambulances outside hospitals across the festive period.
He said the government was taking “urgent action” to increase bed capacity and to get more people out of hospital and into social care to help tackle demand.
The PM also acknowledged people were “waiting too long for the care that they need” due to massive waiting list backlogs, and promised it was “an absolute priority” for him to tackle.
But in response, head of the Royal College of Nursing Pat Cullen, said he “appeared detached from the reality of what is happening and why” in the NHS.
Writing to health secretary Steve Barclay, the union chief claimed the speech “focused on false promise and hollow boasts when practical and urgent measures are required on the part of government”.
Earlier today, shadow health minister and doctor Rosena Allin-Khan said NHS staff are going to work feeling as if they have “one arm tied” amid growing pressures in the healthcare service
Ms Allin-Khan, who worked in the NHS over Christmas and will be completing a shift this Sunday, told Sky News current pressures mean “we have a situation where people are having intimate examinations in cupboards”.
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Data shows NHS stresses
Asked what it comes down to, she said: “We have had 12 years of political choices that have resulted in us already having an under-resourced NHS with no slack in the system.
“Now we have a situation where people are having intimate examinations in cupboards, patients are waiting up to 99 hours in an ambulance in an A&E bay, unable to get a bed inside a hospital.
“We’re having children sleeping on plastic chairs, patients lying on the floors, being examined on floors with sheets held up by nurses.”
Ms Allin-Khan said the state of the NHS is an “acute crisis” and described doctors and nurses as being “absolutely broken”.
The shadow health minister said Labour has a “workforce plan” to deal with the issues, adding: “We would train an extra 10,000 nurses and midwives every year, we would double the number of medical school places, we would have 5,000 extra health visitors, we would improve our mental health services.”
Concerns are mounting about the current state of public healthcare, with well over a dozen NHS trusts and ambulance services having declared critical incidents over the festive period.
Yesterday, Downing Street said the government is doing “everything possible” to increase the number of hospital beds available as winter pressures continue to bite.
But the British Medical Association (BMA) has accused the government’s “political choices” of leading to patients “dying unnecessarily”.
Issuing a stark warning earlier this week, Professor Phil Banfield, chairman of the BMA council, said: “The current situation in the NHS is intolerable and unsustainable, both for our patients and the hard-working staff desperately trying to keep up with incredibly high levels of demand.”
But the PM’s official spokesman said on Tuesday that ministers had been “up front” with the public about the pressures the NHS would face this winter, partly due to the backlog created by the pandemic.
He also acknowledged that the current pressure on the health service was an “unprecedented challenge”.
Opposition parties have criticised the government for inaction over recent days, with the Liberal Democrats calling for parliament to be recalled to discuss the situation.
Speaking for the first time since the festive period yesterday, the health secretary blamed high cases of flu, COVID and fears about Strep A for the “massive pressure” the NHS has faced in recent weeks.
Asked if the situation was acceptable, Steve Barclay said “no”, adding that he had held meetings on Tuesday and over Christmas with NHS England to go through their operational plans, with a particular focus on tackling “delayed discharges” – those people in hospital beds who are fit enough to go home.
World
Body of missing rabbi Zvi Kogan found in UAE – as Israeli PM says he was murdered in ‘antisemitic terror incident’
The COP29 climate talks have reached a last ditch deal on cash for developing countries, pulling the summit back from the brink of collapse after a group of countries stormed out of a negotiating room earlier.
The slew of deals finally signed off in the small hours of Sunday morning in Azerbaijan includes one that proved hardest of all – one about money.
Eventually the more than 190 countries in Baku agreed a target for richer polluting countries such as the UK, EU and Japan to drum up $300bn a year by 2035 to help poorer nations both curb and adapt to climate change.
It is a far cry from the $1.3trn experts say is needed, and from the $500bn that vulnerable countries like Uganda had said they would be willing to accept.
But in the end they were forced to, knowing they could not afford to live without it, nor wait until next year to try again, when a Donald Trump presidency would make things even harder.
Bolivia’s lead negotiator Diego Pacheco called it an “insult”, while the Marshall Islands’ Tina Stege said it was “not nearly enough, but it’s a start”.
UN climate chief Simon Stiell said: “This new finance goal is an insurance policy for humanity, amid worsening climate impacts hitting every country.
“No country got everything they wanted, and we leave Baku with a mountain of work still to do. So this is no time for victory laps.”
The funding deal was clinched more than 24 hours into overtime, and against what felt like all the odds.
The talks were rocked from the start by the incoming presidency of climate denier Mr Trump, the moment Argentina’s team were recalled back to Buenos Aires by their right-wing president and a controversial letter that sent shockwaves through the United Nations.
Pic: AP
The fraught two weeks of negotiations pitted the anger of developing countries who are footing the bill for more dangerous weather that they did little to cause, against the tight public finances of rich countries.
A relieved Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez, climate envoy for Panama, said there is “light at the end of the tunnel”.
Just hours ago, the talks almost fell apart as furious vulnerable nations stormed out of negotiations in frustration over that elusive funding goal.
They were also angry with oil and gas producing countries, who stood accused of trying to dilute aspects of the deal on cutting fossil fuels.
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Climate-vulnerable nations storm out of talks
The UN talks work on consensus, meaning everyone has to agree for a deal to fly.
A row over how to follow up on last year’s pledge to “transition away from fossil fuels” was left unresolved and punted into next year, following objections from Chile and Switzerland for being too weak.
A draft deal simply “reaffirmed” the commitment but did not dial up the pressure in the way the UK, EU, island states and many others here wanted.
Saudi Arabia fought the hardest against any step forward on cutting fossil fuels, the primary cause of climate change that is intensifying floods, drought and fires around the world.
Governments did manage to strike a deal on carbon markets at COP29, which has been 10 years in the making and will allow countries to trade emissions cuts.
‘Not everything we wanted’
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The UK’s energy secretary, Ed Miliband, said the deal is “not everything we or others wanted”, but described it as a “step forward”.
“It’s a deal that will drive forward the clean energy transition, which is essential for jobs and growth in Britain and for protecting us all against the worsening climate crisis,” he added.
“Today’s agreement sends the signal that the clean energy transition is unstoppable.
“It is the biggest economic opportunity of the 21st century and through our championing of it we can help crowd in private investment.”
Protesters at the summit in Baku. Pic: AP
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The Azerbaijan team leading COP29 said: “Every hour of the day, we have pulled people together. Every inch of the way, we have pushed for the highest common denominator.
“We have faced geopolitical headwinds and made every effort to be an honest broker for all sides.”
At least 20 people have been killed and 66 injured in Israeli strikes on central Beirut, Lebanese authorities have said.
Lebanon‘s health ministry said the death toll could rise as emergency workers dig through the rubble looking for survivors. DNA tests are being used to identify the victims, the ministry added.
The attack destroyed an eight-storey residential building and badly damaged several others around it in the Basta neighbourhood at 4am (2am UK time) on Saturday.
The central Basta neighbourhood in Beirut
The Israeli military did not warn residents to evacuate before the attack and has not commented on the casualties.
At least four bombs were dropped in the attack – the fourth targeting the city centre this week.
A separate drone strike in the southern port city of Tyre this morning killed two people and injured three, according to the state-run National News Agency.
The victims were Palestinian refugees from the nearby al Rashidieh camp who were out fishing, according to Mohammed Bikai, spokesperson for the Fatah Palestinian faction in the Tyre area.
Israel’s military warned residents today in parts of Beirut’s southern suburbs that they were near Hezbollah facilities, which the army would target in the near future. The warning, posted on X, told people to evacuate at least 500 metres away.
The army said that over the past day it had conducted intelligence-based strikes on Hezbollah targets in Dahiyeh, in Beirut’s southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has a strong presence. It said it hit several command centres and weapons storage facilities.
Pic: AP
Israel has killed several Hezbollah leaders in air strikes on the capital’s southern suburbs.
Heavy fighting between Israel and Hezbollah is ongoing in southern Lebanon, as Israeli forces push deeper into the country since launching a major offensive in September.
According to the Lebanese health ministry, at least 3,670 people have been killed in Israeli attacks there, with more than 15,400 wounded.
It has displaced about 1.2 million people – a quarter of Lebanon’s population – while Israel says about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed in northern Israel.
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‘Dozens’ of Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrike
Meanwhile, six people, including three children and two women, were killed in the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis.
Some 44,176 Palestinians have been killed since the start of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, according to the Gaza health ministry.
The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count, but it has said that more than half of the fatalities are women and children.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking another 250 hostage.
US envoy Amos Hochstein was in the region this week to try to end more than 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, ignited last October by the war in Gaza.
Mr Hochstein indicated progress had been made after meetings in Beirut on Tuesday and Wednesday, before going to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Israel Katz.
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