A cardiologist, Dr Carl Brookes, has warned that the NHS is under unprecedented pressure. Dr Brookes also happens to be the Prime Minister’s brother-in-law.
Hospitals such as his, Dr Brookes told his local newspaper in Hampshire, “face extraordinary challenges.”
He told the Basingstoke Gazette: “I think it is important that people understand that this is unprecedented. There is no doubt that we, and other hospitals around the country, are facing extraordinary challenges.
“Patients who come to the emergency department are being seen, but they are not being seen as quickly as we would like. Priority is given according to clinical need – if someone is critically ill, they will, of course, be seen first.”
This is an extremely challenging time for the NHS and Dr Brookes is far from a lone voice in his concern with how far services and departments are being stretched-particularly accident and emergency services.
Labour have tackled David Cameron on his broken promise to protect the NHS after research found half of the A&E and maternity units he pledged to save have been closed or are now under threat.
Cameron promised a ‘bare knuckle fight’ to protect the NHS back in 2007 and produced a list of 29 hospitals, whose A&E and maternity units were at risk of closure, and vowed to save them. Since then, the Labour Party has found that 14 of the hospitals have seen A&E and maternity units either close, downgraded or under threat of closure.
The NHS is an institution that must be protected, not stretched to breaking point forcing closures and sending units and departments into special measures because government fails to support it or help it find a way through the problems it currently faces. You can read more here.
This week we celebrate the 800th anniversary of a document which lay the foundations for democracy and the rule of law, the Magna Carta. It established the principle that nobody is above the law, not even the monarchy, and it provides the roots to our justice system.
The British Library has the four remaining Magna Carta manuscripts on display for the first time (the first time they have been presented together) as part of its 800 year anniversary.
The precious document, seen as the foundation of the notion of liberty and the principle of law, were written on parchment and so have maintained the perils of time and are in amazingly good condition.
