Emergency rooms in Britain are “under siege” from patients with mundane concerns like hiccups, ingrowing toenails and itchy skin, the National Health Service (NHS) revealed Thursday.
There were over 200,000 A&E (Accident & Emergency) visits last winter for conditions “that could have been dealt with elsewhere”, NHS England said, including around 8,600 for itchy skin, 3,900 for ingrown toenails and nearly 400 for hiccups.
Other concerns clogging up the system between November 2024 and March 2025 were blocked noses, earaches and nearly 100,000 visits for sore throats.
The creaking health service warned patients with “everyday niggles” against adding to the workload of A&E services during winter, with flu season and cold weather making it the busiest period for the NHS.
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It is the “most dangerous time of the year for hospitals” according to the CEO of NHS England, Jim Mackey, and could be even trickier this time around, with thousands of resident doctors planning to go on strike the week before Christmas.
England’s state-funded health system is grappling with long waiting times, a lack of available hospital beds and overwhelmed emergency rooms.
Earlier this week, health minister Wes Streeting said “A&Es should be accident and emergency, not anything and everything”.
But Ian Higginson, head of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine professional association, blamed the overloaded system on “political failure” not patients.
“Last time I looked, it wasn’t patients with hiccups in my corridors, it was sick elderly patients who we couldn’t get into a hospital bed,” Higginson wrote on his social media.
AFP
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