![\"Hospital](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1_health-workersjpeg.jpg\")
Hospital staff are warning that the NHS crisis is getting worse<\/p>\nNew figures reveal an explosion in serious incidents involving patients which have had to be reported to regulators as hospitals struggle to cope.<\/p>\n
04:30, 30 Nov 2025Updated 08:26, 30 Nov 2025<\/p>\n
Hospital staff are warning that the NHS crisis is getting worse<\/p>\n
Nurses have said they are facing a \u201cmission impossible\u201d to keep patients safe on overflowing wards as the NHS<\/a> is plunged into a winter flu crisis. It comes as new figures reveal an explosion in serious incidents involving patients which have had to be reported to regulators as hospitals<\/a> struggle to cope.<\/p>\n At least 3,629 Significant Adverse Event Reviews (SAER) had to be carried out between 2020 and 2024 – hundreds of which involved unexpected deaths, treatment<\/a> delays, heart attacks and falls. Scottish Labour has accused the SNP<\/a> of failing patients after it emerged the number of reviews had soared by 55per cent in just four years.<\/p>\n Scottish Labour<\/a> health spokesperson Jackie Baillie MSP said: \u201cThe NHS has been plunged into crisis because of years of SNP mismanagement. It is deeply worrying that there were more than 3,600 serious patient care incidents in just four years across our health<\/a> boards.<\/p>\n \u201cThis highlights the extent to which services have been pushed to breaking point, with patient<\/a> safety being put at risk. Frontline teams are being stretched to their limits with no relief in sight, with the SNP having utterly failed to recruit and retain staff.<\/p>\n \u201cThis must be the last winter that the SNP <\/a>are in charge of our health service. Our NHS urgently needs a change in direction.\u201d A staggering 1,221 reviews took place in NHS Greater Glasgow<\/a> and Clyde alone, while across all health boards issues involving delays to treatment rose 120 percent.<\/p>\n A SAER is carried out and reported to Healthcare<\/a> Improvement Scotland after an incident that could have caused or did cause harm to a patient, staff member, or visitor. NHS 24 was last week forced to send text messages to thousands of patents warning it had been \u201cinundated\u201d with calls from patients concerned about flu symptoms<\/a>, especially among school-aged children.<\/p>\n NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has asked people with flu<\/a> to treat themselves at home if at all possible rather than attending A&E. And in an exclusive interview Colin Pullman, director of the Royal College of Nursing Scotland, said he feared an impending crisis, with inappropriate \u201ccorridor care\u201d already the norm on wards<\/a> and a lack of basic resources and staff.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cIt is so depressing when you hear the government<\/a> talking about enhanced plans for winter when we are already in November. We should in fact be talking about winter planning for next year, not this year.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are struggling to deal with peaks in demand and there are no real troughs. The issue which has become normalised is corridor care – which is another way of saying care in inappropriate places.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are being treated in nooks and crannies in hospitals<\/a>. We are having to find a room or an office and turn it into a treatment space.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is a real issue for people\u2019s dignity and also in relation to access to oxygen and other vital supplies.<\/p>\n \u201cWe carried out a survey of staff on corridor care and staff are still saying to us that they are delivering in inappropriate places every day which is putting patients<\/a> at risk.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is not enough nursing<\/a> staff. We have never got to the point in Scotland where we have employed the number of nurses for which we have vacancies for never mind the actual level that we need.<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately we are in for a hard, hard winter. One nurse<\/a> made a comment in a meeting – she described her work as \u2018mission impossible\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a danger of a real crisis this year as there was last year, especially because of a very bad flu season. I would encourage everyone who is entitled to a flu jab<\/a> to make sure that they get it.<\/p>\n \u201cNurses are can do people, day in and day out they do the best that they can but also they get frustrated at not being able to deliver the levels of care<\/a> that they want to.\u201d<\/p>\n The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) has reveal there were more than 800 deaths associated with long A&E<\/a> waits before admission in Scotland last year – an increase of a third from the 2023 figure.<\/p>\n Pullman added: \u201cIt is unforgivable if people are dying because there are not adequate resources in the NHS.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI look at it in a wider sense as well. Death is a huge thing for nurses and making sure that they get the time to treat families with the dignity and respect they deserve when they have lost a loved one.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t have enough nurses and there is not enough beds in hospitals<\/a> because of the amount of people who should be getting care delivered in other places.<\/p>\n \u201cWe use that horrible word delayed discharge, but I prefer to say patients who shouldn\u2019t be in hospital<\/a> because they could be better cared for in the community of the resources were in place.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we have rows of ambulances waiting to get into hospitals<\/a>, that is a symptom that hospitals are full to the brim and that people are probably not getting the treatment they require.\u201d<\/p>\n Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community!<\/p>\n Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today.<\/p>\n You’ll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland.<\/p>\n No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team.<\/p>\n All you have to do is click here<\/a>, select ‘Join Community’ and you’re in!<\/p>\n We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. 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Scottish Labour’s health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie(Image: Getty)<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1_NHS-Greater-Glasgow-and-Clyde-Annual-Review-for-2022-2023.jpg\")
A general view of the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n![\"Man](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/2_GettyImages-1306302354.jpg\")
The NHS is urging eligible people to get vaccinated against flu(Image: Getty)<\/p>\n