Top doctor issues stark hospital warning as he fears for elderly

Dr Adrian Boyle compared hospitals to ‘lobster traps’ (Image: -)Britain’s top Accident and Emergency doctors says he is “desperate” to keep his elderly patients from going in to hospital this winter because he fears they will never come back out. Dr Adrian Boyle, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, warned of overcrowding and bed blocking killing hundreds of people every week.Dr Boyle described hospitals as like “lobster traps” as they are “easy to get in to and hard to get out of”.He said the social care crisis had left 13,000 patients stuck on wards despite being deemed medically fit to leave as they do not have a suitable place to go.The log jam is fuelling long waits for ambulances and A&E as well as other delays to emergency care, which are estimated to be causing more than 500 deaths a week.And Dr Boyle warned the situation “could easily get worse” as winter sets in. The warning comes amid the social care crisis (Image: GETTY)Hospitals are running at the highest-ever occupancy at 94.3 percent, with safety at risk when the level surpasses 85 percent.Dr Boyle told the Daily Mail: “Hospitals are like lobster traps – they’re easy to get in to and hard to get out of.”If social care was able to do its job in the way we want it to, these poor people wouldn’t be stranded in hospital.”I have elderly parents and I’m desperate to keep them out of hospital.”For someone who is frail, hospital is often a bad place for them.”They’re being harmed by being in hospital.”Dr Boyle’s comments come after figures showed the number of patients in hospital beds in England who no longer need to be there has reached a new monthly high.An average of 13,613 beds per day were occupied by people ready to be discharged from hospital in October.That was up from 13,305 in September and the highest monthly figure since comparable data began in December 2021.As many as one in three beds in parts of England are occupied by patients who are well enough to be discharged, according to Guardian analysis.On average one in seven beds in acute hospitals in October were occupied with patients who were medically fit to go home or to a care home.But this rose to one in five at 35 of England’s 121 acute hospital trusts, and to almost one in three at two – North Bristol NHS Trust and Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Trust.