Hospital patients ‘feel bewildered’

PATIENTS are being belittled and bewildered in struggling hospitals, a top doctor will tell the BMA conference today.

BMA chairman Dr Mark Porter will claim that too many patients are being failed by the NHS too often.

He will accuse the Government of forcing the health service to ‘run on fumes’ because of underinvestment. And he will attack ministers for ‘wilfully ignoring’ the warnings of doctors and the deterioration of patient care.

A survey by the BMA of 1,031 adults claims that some 43 per cent are dissatisfied with the NHS, up from 1 per cent a year ago. Dr Porter will say the NHS is at ‘breaking point’ despite the dedication of staff, and claim that the lack of beds and doctors, and the queues for treatment, are ‘the result of an explicit political choice’.

The Government has promised to inject an extra £8billion into the NHS over the next five years and hire more doctors and nurses.

The Department of Health said ‘genuinely independent’ research showed that public satisfaction with the NHS ‘is now the highest for all but three of the last 0 years’.