The gridlock of patients in some of England’s hospitals has led to queues of up to 20 ambulances outside A&Es. Photograph: Andy Hall/The Observer
Paramedics across England are watching patients die in the back of ambulances because of delays outside emergency departments, according to a survey by Unison.
The gridlock of patients in some of the country’s hospitals has led to queues of up to 20 ambulances outside casualty departments in certain areas. In a number of cases, crews have been forced to wait more than 12 hours before handing over patients.
The survey of nearly 600 ambulance workers reveals the toll of the waits on patients and the crews looking after them. Unison warns that “car park care” is increasingly becoming the norm, with hospital medical staff tending to patients in the back of ambulances.
More than three-quarters (77%) of paramedics and emergency medical technicians said they have had to look after people in the back of ambulances in the past year while stuck outside emergency departments. Two-thirds (68%) have waited in hospital corridors, or in other locations, with one paramedic often caring for several patients to allow colleagues to respond to other calls.
More than two-thirds also reported patients’ health deteriorating during long waits, and one in 20 (5%) said people have died in their care because of long delays in being admitted.
Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an insane, xenophobic Fascist.
Donald Trump is repeating the same mistakes of short-lived former UK Prime Minister Liz Truss. It’s not a few uber-rich individuals that maintain economic health, concentrating wealth is unhealthy. The rich wouldn’t be rich if they were willing to spend their money. It is the poor that are forced to spend to survive, they have no choice. Making the poor poorer to make a tiny minority richer is counter-productive as markets globally are showing.
Additionally, Trump is a sullen, arrogant bigot unwilling to recognise the overwhelming urgency of climate action. Even marine mammals recognise this.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
People carry signs during a “Hands Off!” protest against US President Donald Trump on April 5, 2025, in New York
DEMONSTRATIONS across the United States over the weekend give the lie to claims that all is lost in the struggle for people’s rights and social justice against the conservative right and its far-right allies.
Of course, there are always the defeatists — notably the “centre-left” intellectuals — who insist that the working classes on both sides of the Atlantic are too stupid, lazy, selfish and racist to resist injustice.
In the words of Private Frazer: “We’re all doomed!” Fascism is inevitable.
Meanwhile, millions of protesters of all colours, creeds and political affiliations, from the centre-right to the real left, from Los Angeles to Washington DC, marched in defence of jobs, women’s rights, the US constitution, the young, the elderly, the sick, black communities, the world’s poor and the Palestinians against the Trumpian onslaught.
They face a deeply reactionary Republican administration backed by a sizeable section of ruthless monopoly capital and a powerful state apparatus. The US working class, the labour and progressive movements and the people will need all the unity they can muster to block the advance of the resurgent right and its proto-fascist elements.
But as the worldwide pushback grows against Donald Trump’s global trade war, cracks will open up within the ruling Republicans, the monopoly capitalist class and even within and between the agencies of the state. Provided the insurgents put not their trust in Democratic Party politicians on the big-business payroll, they can generate their own vision, strategies and leadership to turn back the Maga maniacs.
In Britain, too, the “centre left” must not be allowed to divert or demoralise the emerging opposition to Keir Starmer’s treacherous regime and its pro-City, pro-Nato policies.
In many local communities, people are beginning to mobilise to defend their public services, their social facilities and their rights. Never have such policies as a wealth tax, public-sector housebuilding and public ownership of energy and public transport been so popular. The Alternative Economic Strategy is making a welcome comeback.
Protesters march every week against the British government’s sickening silence about — and complicity in — the Israeli genocide. Britain’s armed forces can blast the Houthis and defend Israel against incoming rockets, can bomb and invade Serbia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Yemen — yet not a finger can be lifted to protect defenceless Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
Public cynicism about the West’s real motives for pouring yet more weapons into the Ukraine war cauldron instead of genuinely seeking the end to a conflict that did not begin with Russia’s brutal incursion three years ago.
In Britain, we can build a people’s mass movement around these burning issues and, in the process, expose the anti-working-class politics of Reform UK, whose four top officers made their millions in banking, property development or the City.
Again, though, we need unity to be built on solid foundations.
These cannot include demands for Britain to align itself with the EU in a trade war against the US and even China. Nor should there be illusions that deep-seated problems which festered during decades of EU membership can somehow be more readily resolved by rejoining the big-business club or its capital and labour markets.
Nato rearmament must be opposed. The US-led cold war anti-socialist alliance has now outlived the Warsaw Pact by more than 30 years.
Clasping these two serpents to its bosom would spell suicide for any people’s movement that stands for public services, social justice, peace and solidarity.
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Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Youth Demand activists in Old Street, central London, April 5, 2025
DOZENS of activists from Youth Demand blocked streets in central London on Saturday, calling for the government to impose a total trade embargo on Israel.
The activists also said the super-rich and fossil fuel elites should be made to pay damages to communities and countries worst harmed by fossil fuel burning.
Monday-Malachi Rosenfeld, 22, a politics and international relations student from east London, took part in the action.
He said: “Every day the Labour government is killing children in Palestine and they do not care so long as the money from Israeli trade keeps flowing.
“We have all seen what’s happening in Gaza and we must not look away. Children are dying. Entire families are starving.
“Our government has a direct part in this genocide and they know it. Just two weeks ago, [Foreign Secretary] David Lammy himself admitted that Israel was violating international humanitarian law.
“Instead of having any humanity, our government is trying to silence and suppress those speaking out about these crimes.”
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAUK Foreign Minister David Lammy confirms that UK government and military are active participants in Israel’s genocides and that the F-35 parts that they suspended from supplying to Israel are instead simply diverted via the United States. He says see https://youtu.be/QILgUHrdWRE
Toothless in England campaigners for NHS dentistry
MARK JONES of Toothless in England says the devastating report from MPs on Britain’s worsening dental crisis shows we need immediate action — and explains what must be done
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Over the past four years, Toothless in England has highlighted the deepening crisis in NHS dentistry, exposing the profound suffering of patients and the apparent lack of resolve from successive governments and NHS England to address the dental crisis. Despite some policy promises, the plight of dental patients remains dire in 2025, with access to care still elusive for many, perpetuating a public health emergency that affects both individuals and society at large.
Dental patients continue to suffer in 2025, a stark reminder of the government and NHS England’s failure to deliver systemic change. The statistics are grim: up to 97 per cent of new patients seeking NHS dental care are turned away, and 90 per cent of practices are not accepting new adult NHS patients. Waiting lists stretch to years, forcing desperate measures — with some patients resorting to DIY dentistry with pliers, while others travel abroad for “affordable” treatment.
Stories abound of crumbling teeth, chronic pain, untreated infections, deaths caused by dental sepsis and undiagnosed mouth cancers, with vulnerable groups like the elderly and low-income families hit hardest. For instance, cancer patients face delays in life-saving treatments due to inaccessible dental check-ups, a ripple effect Toothless has repeatedly highlighted.
The consequences extend beyond oral health. Untreated dental issues cost the economy through lost productivity, burden A&E departments with non-dental emergencies, and widen health inequalities.
