Dr Tim Cooksley warned things are getting worse for the NHS every winter (Image: Tim Cooksley/Getty)
are “full to bursting” across the country and next winter could be even worse, a top consultant has warned.
Dr Tim Cooksley, immediate past president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said too many hospitals were running at unsafe levels of bed occupancy throughout the year, leaving no spare capacity for the .
He told the Daily Express: “Therefore the smallest rise in any pressure would cause real challenges. I think there is an element that says, ‘it’s only this bad because there’s a really bad season’.
“The flu season is clearly contributing but…even if there hadn’t been a really challenging flu season this year, we would have still hit a crisis, potentially not quite as bad as this one but still a significant crisis.”
Up to 20 hospitals last week, according to the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM).
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Many A&E departments pleaded with the public to stay away unless in need of urgent help as they were overwhelmed by a surge in demand.
Dr Cooksley said there was concern among medics that “fundamental issues” across the NHS system remained unresolved.
These include a lack of capacity in social care which delays hospital discharges, and problems with access to GP and community services which mean some patients turn up at hospital instead.
The acute medicine consultant added: “Each year, things are a step worse. This year I’m speaking to colleagues throughout the country and there’s a uniform opinion that it has never been this bad.
“This Government clearly couldn’t turn things around before this , but they haven’t even stabilised things.
“The situation has got worse and many of us feel – and I’m afraid I feel like this as well – that we’re going to get into an even worse situation this time next year.
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“That’s very difficult to perceive, how it could be worse. And yet, somehow, I feel it will be.”
Dr Cooksley said it was not right to blame any single political party for the crisis, but called for the urgent development of a “recovery plan that people feel is believable”.
And he warned that 2028 – the year ’s is due to present its full recommendations – is “too far away”.
Dr Cooksley added: “Things are terrible on the ground. We’re hearing it from colleagues and sadly from patients and relatives who have been experiencing these things, waiting awfully long times on trolleys or in corridors.
“When these things happen, real harm happens to people.”
The stark warning came as analysis by the revealed a staggering 400 times more people are now waiting over 12-hours in A&E, compared with 10 years ago.
A record 518,000 patients waited over 12 hours from a decision to admit to actually being admitted last year, up from just 1,306 in 2015.
The figure had also increased by a quarter from 415,000 in 2023. The RCEM previously estimated that 14,000 deaths were linked to long A&E waits in 2023.
Liberal Democrat health and social care spokesperson Helen Morgan said delays were “putting patient lives at risk and leaving staff struggling to cope”.
She added: “The new government looks to be asleep at the wheel and must take rapid action to remedy this crisis.
“This must start with the Health Secretary producing an emergency plan to protect patients from this ongoing disaster.”