Britain’s health service is engulfed in a “humanitarian crisis” that requires the support of the Red Cross to use Land Rovers to transport patients, the charity said on Saturday.
Founded in 1948, the National Health Service (NHS) is a source of pride for many Britons who are able to access free care from the cradle to the grave.
However, tight budgets, an aging population and increasingly complex medical needs have left many hospitals struggling during the winter season in recent years, prompting headlines about patients being left to wait on trolleys for hours or even days.
The NHS rejected the Red Cross’ description and the British Department of Health said it had injected an additional ￡400 million pounds (US$491.8 million) to help with the demand, but the opposition Labour Party called on British Prime Minister Theresa May to do more to tackle the overcrowding.
“This is a national scandal,” Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said in a statement. “We should not have to rely on the Red Cross to provide the basic care the people of this country need. I am demanding that the prime minister comes to the House of Commons on Monday and sets out to the British people how she plans to fix her failure on the NHS.”
The row was triggered by a statement on the British Red Cross Web site, next to appeals for help in Yemen and Syria, which said it was now “on the front line, responding to the humanitarian crisis in our hospital and ambulance services across the country.”
The charity was deploying emergency volunteers and having to call on partner Land Rover to lend vehicles to transport patients, British Red Cross chief executive officer Mike Adamson said.
The NHS has always been an emotive issue in Britain, and was once described by a former British chancellor of the exchequer Nigel Lawson as the “closest thing the English have to a religion.”
NHS England director Keith Willett said the service was not on a par with a humanitarian crisis, but that demand was at its highest-ever level and staff were under pressure.
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