500 Deaths A Week Due To NHS Crisis

Health chief's warning as doctors tell of worst winter on record

- Ben Glaze

UP to 500 people a week could be dying due to emergency care delays, a top health boss warns.

A&E waits could be the worst on record this winter, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine's Dr Adrian Boyle said.

He urged Tory Health Secretary Steve Barclay, left, to "get a grip on it".

 » Flu season threatens to wreck a creaking NHS

 » Shocked staff tell of ‘Dickensian’ conditions

HUNDREDS of patients are dying unnecessarily as a bad flu season compounds systemic problems in the NHS, warns Royal College of Emergency Medicine chief Dr Adrian Boyle.

Another medic told of “Dickensian overcrowding” amid the NHS winter crisis.

Dr Boyle said this winter is likely to be the worst on record for A&E wait times as hospitals are hit with rocketing demand driven by flu, Covid and Strep A.