Commenting on health and social care secretary Wes Streeting’s statement on winter pressures made in Parliament today (15 January), Dr Tim Cooksley, immediate past president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said:
“The secretary of state’s description of corridor care is accurate but the measures needed to change that direction – increased capacity, workforce and improvements in social care – he has steadfastly avoided.
“This is condemning many more patients to degrading corridor care and the current trajectory already suggests it is going to be worse next year not better.
“While the first step is to accept there is a real problem as he has done – and that is welcome – there is much concern about his wider comments and interpretations. This is not down to flu alone and the failure to name specific interventions to address the underlying chronic and widely-recognised issues is extremely worrying.
“Politicians have accused Mr Streeting of being “asleep at the wheel” but it feels it is more a case of him seeing the crash ahead but hoping that with luck he will avoid it or by warning of trouble ahead that he can buy time he doesn’t have.
“Failure to listen to the vast amount of specialists and organisations repeatedly urging rapid action to tackle to core problems means that, should things worsen further, he will have wilfully ignored the warning signs.”