Gavin Grey: UK correspondent on the stats on patients dying in UK hospitals

Over in the UK, the number of patients dying after enduring long waits in A&E departments has risen almost tenfold in a decade.

Nearly 16,000 deaths in England last year were linked to such delays - the equivalent of more than 300 every week.

UK correspondent Gavin Grey says the Government needs to look into a long-term solution to bring these figures down. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Gevin Gray from the UK. Good afternoon to you, Hi,
her Andrew. I've just actually read out all the figures
of the state of the nation of health in New
Zealand from a stuff poll from fifteen hundred people, and
people are very concerned about it. And not only that,
that's the same thing happening in the UK really where
they're worried about A and E departments.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Yes, so accidental emergency or the er the emergency room
as it is in some countries where the latest survey
shows that a number of patients dying after enduring long
waits in the UK has risen almost tenfold in a
decade now. Partially that is because the sheer number of
people now presenting to A and E quite extraordinary. In

(00:40):
twenty twenty five, those the most recent figures, we have
nearly seventeen million patients attended a so called typewe emergency department.
That's a twenty four hour consult on the consultant lead facility.
That is the highest number ever recorded. But I'm afraid
that also meant because the infrastructure simply isn't able to cope,

(01:01):
that only two thirds were transferred or discharged within the
four hour time period that's well below the target of
ninety five percent, and that meant that some five hundred
thousand nearly remained for twenty four hours or longer in
A and E. That's an increase of one hundred and

(01:22):
fifty thousand. There were nearly sixteen thousand deaths in England
which in some way, sometimes very small, but in some
way were linked to long weights in A and E
the equivalent of more than three hundred every week. And
this has given the opportunity for the Royal College of
Emergency Medicine here in the UK to say, look, these
weights are skyrocketed. They've gone up a decade, tenfold in

(01:43):
a decade, as I said, and this government needs to
stop looking at quick fixes and look at longer term
solutions to what's going on now.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Vladimir Zelinsky reached out to Vladimir Putin sa con in
this war man, you're hurting, and of course European allies
have come out and supported that letter.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yes they have, and they've were met together in Downing
Street at the weekend. So that's lot of miss Zelenski,
the UK Prime Minister, the French President of the German
Chancellor saying that look, we're going to stand firmly with Ukraine.
Where we've heard that before, but they have now issued
five conditions for a long and lasting peace and a
deal to end this war. And those conditions are obviously

(02:28):
a stop to the fighting, starting negotiations from the current
position in the field of war. And that's pretty important,
as well as what they're calling robust security guarantees for Ukraine.
But the question here, Andrew, is anyone listening. Donald Trump's
focus has shifted to the war in Iran. Vladimir Putin
has offered that open letter to end the war and says, no,

(02:50):
I don't want to talk until we've got what we
want sort of thing. And may people feel now that
Ukraine is just being forgotten by the world as it
focuses on the Street of Hall moves and Iran. So
a pretty telling a few hours at Downing Street where
they're trying to reinvigorate and highlight some of the problems
facing by Ukraine and things that we and others can do.

(03:13):
But yeah, big question is anyone listening to what's now
being said about Ukraine?

Speaker 1 (03:17):
And of course we're getting ready for the World Cup
and Ukraine was playing some football and they were playing
it against Denmark, but unfortunately one of the footballers in
the Danish side had a terrible, terrible medical emergency.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
Yes, they did very unpleasant scenes. Again now to be clear,
neither Denmark nor Ukraine qualified for this year's World Cup,
but they're part of those teams that are in the America,
Canada and Mexico in order to help play friendlies. Just
as of course England played New Zealand and ericson had
This footballer from Denmark, Christian Erickson, had suffered a cardiac

(03:49):
arrest and had to be resuscitated on the pitch in
a Euro twenty twenty game in twenty twenty one that
was against Finland. Now he was fitted with a special
heart starting device, is an implantable cardiovert to defibrillator, but
sadly on the pitch the thirty four year old suddenly
collapse at the weekend and is well, did manage to
walk off the pitch and is being wanted, so our

(04:11):
best wishes are I.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
Wondered whether he was the guy who at first happened
to That's an incredible story and can I can I
just say England beating New Zealand one Nill is actually
a defeat for England.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
Yes, I completely agree. I mean, you do very well.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
Oh yeah, well well we could have done better, I
have to say. But you guys need to score more
goals because it's our year, isn't it that It's coming home,
isn't it? Gavin?

Speaker 2 (04:32):
Come on, come on, well we're doing okay at the
cricket at the moment.

Speaker 1 (04:37):
That's okay. You had to do that, didn't you. Gavin? Goodbye?
It is eight to seven.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
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