Cuts In NHS Are Killing Patients And Staff, Says Doctor

Patients are dying and there have been suicides among overstressed staff as a result of NHS rationalisation, a leading consultant in Lanarkshire claimed yesterday. Dr Martin Watt of Monklands Hospital, who was speaking at an event organised by Scottish Voice NHSFirst, said of the downgrading of the A&E:

“It is an unpalatable fact people are dying in our hospitals because doctors and nurses are stretched beyond the limit. They are simply unable to give patients the attention to detail that is required and as a result, unfortunately, people are dying needlessly.”

He also claimed he knew a number of cases of junior doctors who had committed suicide, either through stress or frustration about their prospects. “I know one case of someone who walked in front of a train,” he said. He blamed top-heavy management for failing to address the needs of frontline clinical staff and patients.

Dr Watt has been a doctor for 27 years and a consultant for 12. He was warned by bosses to stay quiet but he had decided to go public “before the whole system caves in,” adding: “I can no longer stand back and allow this disastrous state of affairs to continue unchallenged.”

Scottish Voice NHSFirst is campaigning for the retention of Monklands A&E which lies in the constituency of Home Secretary John Reid. Dr Watt said: “The truth is that at Monklands and at other NHS hospitals throughout the country there is simply not enough capacity. Patients are waiting too long for beds and this causes overcrowding in departments such as the A&E.

“The problem is that while people coming into A&E might be seen before the four-hour waiting time target, some will require further treatment. Then they are often left waiting in corridors for between 12 and 18 hours because there are no beds available on the wards.”

Dr Watt said patients were dying, particularly from pulmonary embolisms or blood clots because staff did not have the time, or sometimes the drugs, to prevent it. He said the rise of MRSA and other hospital infections was a direct consequence of badly run regimes.

“The fact is that unless you are young, fit and relatively healthy, NHS hospitals are not places in which you want to end up. But unless there is a radical change in the way they are run, things can only get worse.”

When more resources are needed, Dr Watt added that staff are often told to make a “business case” for it and even then the offer is sometimes of poor, second-hand equipment from elsewhere. “I have been trained as a doctor, not a businessman, and I don’t see why I should be expected to behave as one.”

Dr Watt was speaking as Labour’s campaign in Airdrie and Shotts ran into serious trouble over the fate of the accident and emergency department there. Labour is now campaigning on the basis that the local A&E is “not closing” – but there has been no change to the plan to downgrade it to a non-emergency unit. Dr Watt called this claim by Labour’s candidate Karen Whitefield “a dishonest spin on reality”.

A spokesman for NHS Lanarkshire said: “We are very surprised and concerned by the comments made by Dr Watt. We have formal arrangements in place where any issues of patient and/or staff safety can be urgently addressed and would expect clinicians to use these formal routes to express such serious claims.”

He added: “We can confirm that the views expressed by Dr Watt are not shared by senior clinical colleagues. We would also like to reassure patients that our priority is to provide safe services and the highest standards of care within our hospitals. All our staff work extremely hard to deliver first-class services and will continue to do so. Any comments made which undermine their efforts are both unfair and unhelpful.”