London.- Almost one in four British adults have had to treat their illnesses themselves with medicines bought in pharmacies or online in the last 12 months after being unable to get an appointment, while hundreds of patients die every week from waiting too long to be admitted to hospital wards. emergencies, reports The Guardian.
According to a survey carried out by the consultancy Savanta ComRes among 2,061 people, 16% of those surveyed answered affirmatively to the question whether the difficulty in making an appointment with a specialist had led them to “perform medical treatment on themselves or to ask a another person who is not a medical professional to do it”.
Furthermore, the study shows that 19% of patients chose to go to the ER for emergency medical assistance for the same reason. The investigation also revealed that 11% of those surveyed had paid to be treated at a private clinic.
In parallel, delays in British emergency services could be causing between 300 and 500 deaths a week, the president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, Adrian Boyle, told Times Radio, quoted by the same media.
37,837 patients waited more than 12 hours to be admitted to the emergency room in November last year, compared to 10,646 registered in November 2021, according to data from the UK National Health Service.
Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrat Party, which had commissioned the poll, said the delays and difficulties in accessing primary medical care is “a national scandal” and that in some parts of the country in-person medical appointments “almost ceased to exist.” have been extinguished”.
“Now we have a devastating situation where people treat themselves or even self-prescribe medication because they can’t see their GP,” lamented the politician.
In addition, Davey blamed years of neglect of the public health sector by Conservative governments, especially ministers who repeatedly reneged on their promises to recruit more primary care specialists.