The alarming extent of the pressure on the NHS was revealed last week when several A&E units were forced to turn away all but life-threatening cases as they struggled to cope with soaring numbers of patients.
Shocking new figures show waiting times are at their worst in a decade and in the past three months, 21,000 patients have languished on trollies for up to 12 hours.
The winter months always see a spike in the number of patients due to flu and vomiting bugs, but the amount of patients flocking to A&E, often after failing to get a GP appointment, has spiralled out of control.
As A&E units buckled under the strain, managers sent out pleas for doctors and nurses to work overtime and appealed to the Red Cross for help, while Great Western Hospital in Swindon was forced to put up a heated tent, which they later took down, after fearing they would run out of beds.
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Pensioner Florence Cunningham endured a horrendous experience after waiting 11 hours for an ambulance after collapsing at her home. Once she arrived at Queen Alexandra hospital, Portsmouth the 81-year-old waited a further hour on a trolley for treatment.
Her son David Cunningham, 56, spoke to Closer about her ordeal: He says: “It was so distressing, watching my mum in agony while we waited for an ambulance. We called 999 five times and were told an ambulance was on its way, but it never arrived.
"My sister had to sit on a blanket on the floor and comfort her. My elderly dad kept getting up to check the ambulance was coming, it was an awful situation. Mum had a hip replacement last year so she’s quite frail.
"There was no way we could have taken her to A&E ourselves as we didn’t want to injure her further by moving her. All we could do was wait, we felt helpless.
“Mum comes from a stoic generation that didn’t go to the doctors or hospital much. She’s never been a burden on the NHS in her life and now when she needs help it’s been horrendous.
"The whole situation was unacceptable, she’s a vulnerable elderly woman and deserved better treatment.”
Read the rest of this article in Closer magazine, out today