Leading Peterborough City Hospital consultant warns Prime Minister of '˜intolerable' safety compromises in joint letter

Dr Athar Yasin has co-signed a letter to Theresa May alongside consultants in charge of emergency care at 67 other hospitals which detail the “very serious concerns” they have for the “safety of our patients.”

They added: “This current level of safety compromise is at times intolerable, despite the best efforts of staff.”

The consultants spell out a series of problems which are currently impacting the NHS, including: thousands of patients waiting in ambulances for hours; more than 120 patients a day managed in corridors, with some dying prematurely; an average wait of 10 to 12 hours for a bed; and more than 50 patients at a time waiting for beds in emergency departments.

They added that the NHS is “severely and chronically underfunded.”

New national figures released today (Thursday, January 11) showed that the percentage of patients being treated at A&E inside four hours has reached a record low.

The figure was down at 85.1 per cent, equalling the record low from last January, with more than 300,000 patients forced to wait for at least four hours in all A&E units.