Patients left in corridors as Midway Hospital Trust continues to struggle amid A&E crisis

Simon Goebbels

By Our Local Demagoguery Reporter
Simon Goebbels

Everyone loves British New Year’s traditions. And sure enough, one of the great New Year’s traditions of the last 15 years is to write “why-oh-why” articles about how our hospitals are “in crisis” and “overwhelmed” in the winter months.

And now we’ve got a Labo*r government, we can blame them for everything and undermine anything they try and do to fix 15 years of ‘austerity’- driven under-funding, constant central government policy changes, social care cutback and infrastructure neglect. Happy days…!

Stock image of patients in hospital corridors

Any visitor to Midway Hospital will be appalled by what they see. Beds filled with patients line the emergency unit’s corridors in scenes likened to a “war zone” by worried relatives.

These scenes are a damning illustration of the crisis facing the Midway Hospitals Trust. And the pressure isn’t easing, with winter set to bite and almost 1,200 patients last month enduring delays of more than half a day for a bed - up from an average of three just five years ago.

But how have things got so bad so quickly, and what is being done to ease the strain on a system at breaking point?

We could have sent some investigative reporters over to the hospital to talk to the managers, hospital staff and to local GPs, but all of our unpaid interns have gone back to university.  So we looked at GBNews archives on Google for the answer. And what we found quite clearly shows that the current crisis in the NHS is entirely the fault of the new Labo*r government.

This graph shows that since Labo*r came to power in July 2024, NHS waiting lists are at the highest levels ever seen.

Highest NHS waiting list ever: all Labo*r's fault...

Newspaper headlines include ‘My Sick Son Waited Two Years In A Hard Chair’, ‘Doctors Prioritise Asylum Seekers Over UK Nationals’, “How dare Whinging Lazy Overpaid NHS Managers Complain About Collapsing Concrete In Tory-Built Low-Budget 80’s Hospitals?” and “Hypocritical Tories Turn On Covid Healthcare Heroes When They Ask For A Pay Rise” (can we drop that last one? – Ed.)

Labo*r Health Minister W*s Str*eting

This damning indictment of Labo*r’s Wes Streeting and his healthcare policies provides some indication of the struggles endured recently by the trust, which runs Chattingham Hospital, Midway’s main hospital.

This bleak picture of the crisis engulfing Midway’s emergency departments is supported by monthly statistics published by the NHS.

All trusts are required to record how many people are attending their A&Es, how long they’re waiting to be seen and, if they need to stay in hospital, how long it is before they’re given a bed.

Since the start of this year, an average of 1,250 people a month in East Kent have waited more than 12 hours to be admitted. That’s almost 40 patients a day.

Among them is great-grandmother Mrs Elsie Dreadful, who went to Midway Hospital with a bad headache.

Sid and Elsie Dreadful: "Disgraceful..."

Her husband Sid spoke to the MORON from her side on Friday morning - almost 48 hours after she had arrived at the hospital.

“She’s been left on a bed next to a desk in the waiting area of the A&E assessment area,” he said.

“All the bays are full and they don’t have a bed on a ward. The corridors are also lined with beds filled with patients - it’s like a war-zone, like something you’d see in a third-world country."

“It’s disgraceful. Her headache was really bad, and all the nurses did was give her some paracetamol. Her headache did get better though, so we went home…”

Many patients enduring long delays, including Mrs. Dreadful, are given treatment while they wait - a practice known as “corridor care” and branded “dehumanising” by leading doctors.

“It’s so degrading to be treated in front of others with no privacy, especially someone my mum’s age,” he said. “There’s no dignity at all. It’s heartbreaking to see,” said Sid.

One of the reasons most cited for causing the long waits is ‘bed-blocking’ - where people well enough to be discharged from hospital can’t be for various reasons.

Another stock image of patients in hospital corridor

Across Midway’s four hospital trusts in October, 52 people a day were still on wards despite no longer needing inpatient care.

Of these, more than 60% were waiting for a long-term care package to be put in place so they could return home, such as daily visits to help with dressing and feeding. Others could not be discharged until a suitable care home was found for them.

The knock-on impact is a backlog of patients needing to be admitted, but with no ward space free to accommodate them.

With Midway Borough’s Labo*r Council responsible for the region’s social care, there can be no doubt that they should be taking the blame for the crisis facing our hospitals.

Cllr Dan Hapless, the authority’s cabinet member for adult social care and public health, accepts it will be blamed for everything, despite the legacy of the previous 14 years of Tory cost-cutting and neglect.

“Midway is the most challenged region, generally speaking, because we don't have enough quality care providers with the capacity to take on an increasingly elderly population with complex health and care needs.”

“The number one reason for that is that we don't have enough skilled workers able to provide that care. The last government axed the training programmes and froze pay so that people won’t or can’t get into the profession”.

Gratuitous and intrusive soft-porn ad...

“And the old standby of recruiting cheap workers from abroad has been blown away by Brexit. Visas and their associated costs and bureaucracy means that most migrant healthcare workers simply prefer to go elsewhere. It’s less hassle and they can earn more in the EU.”

“And all the anti-migrant sentiment being spouted by UK politicians and their chums in the right-wing media has created a hostile environment that not only discourages overseas staff from coming to the UK, but drives away the ones we have….”

We didn’t like those answers, so we stopped talking to leftie councillor Dan and went for blaming old people instead.

The older a patient, the more likely they are to be affected by multiple conditions and the longer it takes for them to recover.

Midway is particularly impacted by this as the three districts with the highest average age in the county are all in the geographical area covered by the trust.

Elderly people are often more frail and less mobile, which means that a prolonged stay in a hospital bed - rather than moving around their home as normal - can affect their muscles and their long-term ability to walk or do everyday tasks.

This means they can develop more complex care needs by the time they are ready to leave hospital, meaning plans have to be put in place before they are discharged.

Lavinina Matron; "Get the Jab"

In the winter, things like Covid and Flu also affect the elderly disproportionately.

The MORON spoke with the trust’s chief nursing and midwifery officer, Lavinia Matron.

“I can’t emphasise enough the importance of the over-65s getting their flu and Covid vaccinations,” said Ms. Matron.  “It greatly reduces the number of people coming to hospital with severe symptoms.”

Nevertheless, flu and Covid play a big part in the increase in hospital waits during the winter. One such victim was Bessie Nartsie.

Bessie Nartsie: "Bloody Ke*r St*rmer..." 

“I was in a corridor for a whole day when I got the Covid,” she said. “And all those forren doctors kept askin’ me was, ‘Have you had the Covid vaccination?”

“I said to ‘em, ‘Not bloody likely’ I said. That jab has killed millions. That’s wot the Daily Mail said anyway. So it must be true…” Bessie continued.

“Bloody forren doctors. Why can’t we have English ones? Bloody Labo*r and bloody Ke*r St*rmer, lettin’ all these forreners over here in small boats to steal our jobs…

Have patient numbers in Midway increased? Yes, and quite significantly.

Tory housing plans meant an extra 25,000 homes were built in the area in the past 15 years, but with no expansion in healthcare provision. Neither Midway’s Labo*r council or the Labo*r government have done anything about that in the past year since being elected .

Does the East Kent trust need more staff?

Dr. Tinkle: "Infamy..."

Dr. Kenneth Tinkle, the chairman of the Concern for Health in Over-stretched Medical Practices (CHOMP) has spent years at loggerheads with NHS bosses and is calling for more funding to be provided to the trust.

“I keep telling them that unless the NHS can transform the services in Midway and have more staff, they're trying to do too many things for too many patients at the same time,” he said.

“The reason it's never got any better is because they cannot transform or do the services until they get some investment in Midway. It is actually quite as simple as that.”

"That simple message has nevertheless gained me a certain amount of infamy amongst local senior NHS officials. Infamy, infamy - they've all got it in for me..."

While more beds on wards would help, the trust believes increasing capacity outside of hospitals so people can be treated at home or in the community is as important as having the right number of beds and staff for patients needing acute care.

It says all NHS and social care partners are working together to support patients with complex needs so they can be admitted and discharged at the right time.

The winter months are also traditionally a time of additional pressure for hospitals, with more patients needing to be admitted with illnesses such as Covid and flu.

The trust is urging people to only turn up at its A&E departments in an emergency, and to contact NHS 111 online or on the phone to find alternative services for non-urgent medical concerns.

Dr. Tinkle told the MORON that he has serious concerns about what lies ahead in the next few months.

“I know it's probably wrong to say it, but you think hospital services are going to collapse because there's got to be a point when they've just got too many people there and they can't deal with them anymore,” he said.

“When this winter comes now, I think it's going to be probably the worst pressure we've had on the A&E in East Kent since this time last year. And the year before that. And…”

Over in the real world, the perennial trope on overburdened hospitals scores click-bait gold with the regular comments trolls…

Comments:
Please note that we do not moderate comments. However, we may edit or delete them, or manipulate the voting on them in order to reflect our editorial policy.

Neil Barse wrote:
Another Labo*r kick in the teeth for women pensioners.
BBC News - Fury as women hit by pension age rise denied payouts
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czr36842nd6o

👎-26

Tornado Watcher replied:
Nice try on the distraction front, Neil. But this is an article about the dire state of our hospitals which, despite the spins it tries to put on things, is clearly yet another outcome of Tory austerity.
It’s not about women pensioners.
Who, incidentally, were stitched up by pension changes made by John Major’s Tory government. But hey, everything is always Labo*r’s fault, isn’t it?

👍+32

Neil Barse replied:
Typical lies and whataboutery from a bitter and twisted leftist Labo*r loser. I think you far-left socialists must be mentally ill to constantly come out with the lies and whataboutery the way you do. And what about Labo*r’s plans to abolish old-age pensions altogether, eh? Eh? That’s a plan that I’m sure you woke, hate-filled far-left St*rmer worshippers would approve of.

👎-124

Tornado Watcher replied:
So what plans are they, then, Neil? Are they the ones that exist solely in your head, like every other piece of whataboutery and gas-lighting you come out with whenever you post here?

👍+65

Neil Barse replied:
Once again, Tornado Watcher fails to answer the question. Instead he resorts to puerile insults and whataboutery, as ever. In doing so, Tornado Watcher confesses the truth about himself before slinking away to stew in his own UK-hating demented leftist bile. A bitter lonely insidious individual who's mental instability is getting worse by the day, due to the fact they fail to annoy anyone with their constant sea-lioning and self-contradictory posting. Completely expected every time Tornado Watcher posts on here.

👎-135

Gonads wrote:
The Tories cut, cut and cut again over their 14 years of mismanagement...so hardly any surprises that Labo*r haven't managed to fix that in a few months. This is why farmers are now asked to pay tax (though only 50% of normal people) and other non-ideal taxes are needed...and the Tory voters moan (until they need a service).
Having recently walked through A&E at Midway Hospital, I can vouch for people in corridors, the stench of human faeces and general poor acceptability for human dignity. This is not the fault of those frontline doctors and nurses...even though they get the hassle...but wholly down to Tory cuts.

👍+38

SuperSmallDick replied:
NHS funding rose under the Conservatives, even more so under covid. It's now at a record high in absolute terms as well as percentage of GDP.
What are these 'cuts' that you're talking about?

👎-36

Gonads replied:
They reduced annual increases in NHS expenditure from an average 3.5% to a below-inflation level of 1.5%. That’s a cut. Except if you are a Tory of course.

👍+38

SuperSmallDick replied:
Well they were just putting money aside for if a Labo*r government got in, ‘cos they knew those useless lefties would open the floodgates for millions of illegal immigrants to come into the country and need putting up in luxury hotels just like what has happened under useless St*rmer.

👎-29

Phil TheMentallyIll wrote:
The crisis in our hospitals is entirely the fault of Ke*r St*rmer and Chancellor R*chel Re*ves. The removal of the universal Winter Fuel Payment, the imposition of inheritance tax on farmland and Ke*r St*rmer’s freebie spectacles are all directly responsible for the complete collapse of the NHS and the deaths of thousands of people every day. All those who voted Labo*r at the last election should hang their heads in shame.

👎-34

Gonads replied:
People go on about it all being Labo*r's fault, but it was the Tories who chose austerity for ordinary people as a way to pay-off the wealthy so they didn't lose their fortunes when their get-rich-quick ponzi schemes inevitably hit the rocks.
And then of course we had their brilliant Brexit, which has decimated overseas recruitment of medical staff.

👍+43

Chad Grindr replied
The NHS is not underfunded.
It's the most mismanaged and inefficient organisation in the UK.
Anyone involved in supplying the NHS will all say the same thing. Their procurement departments have no desire to obtain the best purchases as "It's not my money"

👎-41

Gonads replied:
Sorry Chad, that simply isn’t true. My wife is a manager for a Midway Hospital Trust. In 2013, the Tories fired lots of NHS managers, then had to rehire them when it became obvious that front-line staff simply couldn’t do their day job as well as run hospitals. Then in 2019, they did exactly the same thing again. The mismanagement and inefficiency you refer to resided entirely with the Tory central government of the times.
I know you Tories don’t like facts that don’t fit with your world view, but here’s an IoG report that sums the whole Tory NHS shit-show up quite nicely.
https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/fixing-public-services-Labo*r-government/nhs

👍+29

Chad Grindr replied
Do you honestly expect anyone to believe a woke, leftist independent review by the Institute for Government, in favour of the unbiased editorials of the Daily Telegraph? No wonder you shouty lefties are so misinformed.

👎-56

Aunt Nartsie wrote:
Everyone knows that privatisation is the answer to inefficient nationalised services. REFORM PLC UK has the right idea. Sell the NHS off to Niglet’s USA chums. We’ll get much better value for money by handing it to huge American health-care insurers than we will by letting our taxes pay for our lazy woke NHS managers and greedy doctors and nurses who are always out on strike.

👎-78

Tornado Watcher replied:
The facts are that the US actually has the highest per capita spend on health - but by far the worst outcomes for patients as a whole.
The UK has maintained high value in terms of care provided against one of the lowest per-capita spends on healthcare among OECD countries. This metric is worsening, but highlights the value we benefit from through our collective NHS healthcare system. An increase in funding results in an exponential increase in quality of care relative to privatised health systems.
The Blair government from 1996 to 2010 proved that.
The Tories dismantled those gains with ‘austerity.
Privatisation has been a disaster on the railways, buses, water companies and so on, hasn't it? But of course, it's bound to work on our NHS...

👍+89

Neil Barse replied:
Tornado Watcher believes old people are to blame for the hospital crisis and thinks they should all be killed. It's nothing to do with anyone else, purely the oldies.
Here's another fact, Grey Mondeo Man has been on holiday today or mysteriously absent from his beloved Labo*r supporting debates and the 'midnight red thumb fairies' that vote down our brilliant right-wing observations are nowhere to be seen. How strange, must be coincidence!

👎-98

Aunt Nartsie wrote:
Neil it is obvious that these woke lefties have more than one log in and use other 'names' in an attempt to undermine our incisive and factual comments. Why else would our comments get down-voted rather than receive hundreds of “green thumbs” as usual?

👎-113

Yu Rong replied:
Very true Aunt N. Devious lot those lefties.

👎-99

Neil Barse replied:
Exactly Aunt Nartsie. Raise questions, speak of your concerns on certain subjects and immediately you are accused by a few hard leftists on here as being racist, homophobic, xenophobic, fascist, far right, etc. Purely done in an attempt to shut you down. It's their stock attack when they know what you are saying or questioning is correct. Everyone is allowed an opinion, but in their hard leftist ideology, only that they agree with.

(Note: On New Year’s Eve, the MORON’s IT bod introduced some software that blocked multiple votes on comments from the same IP address. We don’t like the results that’s been giving, so we’ve now disabled it. - The Editor.)

👍👍👍+234

SuperSmallDick wrote:
The reason our hospitals are full is that they have been overwhelmed by millions of illegal immigrants coming over here in their small boats to take advantage of our free NHS. Everyone’s taxes are going to go through the roof to pay for it all. And yet Ke*r St*rmer scraps the Rwanda scheme because it isn’t cost effective! Four more years of this turgid drivel, then we can vote REFORM.

👍+213

Aunt Nartsie replied:
Indeed. Charity begins at home. Not to those illegally entering the country for no good reason.

👍+191

Pseudocreem 2 wrote:
Comrades, dear Mr. Putin says for you to vote REFORM in next elections because all other political England parties will introduce anti-democratic police state dictatorships unlike truly free Russia as run by champion of democratic freedoms dear Mr. Putin and his Russian oligarch friends whose money is good for UK.

👍+18