Wes Streeting is right not to do a ‘victory lap’ over the NHS – our hospitals are still a nightmare

Labour has announced that its election pledge of two million extra appointments has already been met – but just try shouting about it to the trolley-bound patients receiving care in corridors and car parks, says Clair Woodward

It is undoubtedly good news that the government has fulfilled one of its manifesto promises – and early, too. Within seven months of the election, Labour has met its pledge to introduce two million extra NHS appointments.

“We promised change, and we’ve delivered,” said health secretary Wes Streeting during his media round this morning. “The result is around 160,000 fewer patients on waiting lists today than in July.”

It is also good news that Streeting has said that neither he nor the prime minister are celebrating and “doing victory laps” – because, as he is also quick to point out, there is still a lot to do before the feelgood effect will be felt by many using the NHS.

Patients are routinely being treated in corridors and storerooms, with almost a fifth of those who've come into contact with the NHS in the last six months witnessing or receiving “corridor care”. A report from the Royal College of Nursing last month revealed that car parks and even toilets are also being used as treatment locations – “animal-like conditions”, according to the study, which also revealed how patients were dying in corridors and being undiscovered for hours.

For a sign as to how ingrained such debasements have become with the NHS, look no further than the A&E department advertising for specialist nurses to take on 12-hour “corridor care” shifts.

The issues facing the NHS are huge. Last year, a record 420,000 patients had to wait more than 12 hours in A&E, 99 times higher than it was 14 years ago. But, in many ways, it’s the smaller things that pile on the misery for patients, and which may go unnoticed by the powers-that-be.

Think about the things you, your friends and family have all gone through while at the tender mercies of the NHS that you’ve thought needed fixing. I can usually get a GP appointment the next day, but that’s by phone; I’d rather have it in person. Great as GPs are, I’m sure diagnoses are much easier if you can actually see your patient, and I feel phone appointments don’t benefit people who find it hard to discuss health issues.

For the best part of a year, I’ve been accompanying a relative to a large London hospital for cancer treatment – and the patient self-check-in system doesn’t work. There’s also a large sign at reception asking for patient’s patience, as a new computer system is being installed. It’s been there for quite some time, and I’m wondering when it will be ready, and how fit for purpose it will be. Experts have warned that the UK isn’t spending nearly enough on IT, and deaths have been linked to patient harm. It throws my experience of getting four letters confirming one hospital appointment firmly into the shade.

At least at that hospital, the staff are helpful, informative and charming. A friend about to undergo an operation for breast cancer had an unforgiveable experience in another hospital when asking a member of staff about it. Naturally, emotions were running high, and when staff couldn’t find any reference to her issue, her son asked why. He was then called an “entitled, middle-class c***” by the person on reception, whose boss apologised by saying: “It’s very hard to get staff these days”. If the NHS has to employ foul-mouthed and entirely un-empathetic people like this, there’s clearly a recruitment problem, too.

Another relative has Asperger syndrome and was diagnosed with ADHD last year. The medication they were given was hugely unsuitable and sent them into a mental health crisis. Six months after this hugely distressing incident, the promise of any kind of counselling has still not yet appeared; just one of the many examples of how the government has an extremely long way to go to fix the problem of mental health treatment in the NHS.

These are just a few tales from me and other NHS users in my network. They may not be life-or-death issues, but ones which show how the organisation still has a long way to go before the good news from the NHS trickles down and shows itself to most of its users. These smaller issues add up to create the all-too-familiar crises in overcrowded corridors, which Wes Streeting won’t find easy to do a victory lap around.