A patient shared his harrowing 11-hour wait in A&E at his local London hospital on TikTok, sparking a debate on the social media platform about the state of the NHS. Jon Blower, who works as a DJ, urged people in an emergency to avoid Hillingdon Hospital in West London. He said that the A&E department was “so understaffed” and the outside was full of “rubbish and s*** absolutely everywhere”.
The video from the Londoner, who has over 16,000 followers, has already reached more than 1.5 million views.
In the video, he said: “Sunday night I was at Hillingdon hospital A&E and the wait to see someone was nearly 11 hours long.
“The place was so understaffed and it was so sad to see.
“Outside there was rubbish and s*** absolutely everywhere.”
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He continued: “There was no cleaner and inside was not a lot better either.
“When I went to get my bloods done, the bloke took four attempts to do it.
“He said he didn’t usually do bloods but he was helping out because they were so understaffed.”
Mr Blower then said for anyone who needed A&E care “don’t go here”.
A couple of viewers said that given the waiting time, Mr Blower “could literally drive to any other hospital in the country”.
When questioned whether his visit was a “genuine emergency,” Mr Blower said he was sent there by the 111 service to get an MRI scan and blood tests, adding: “Agree that emergencies get seen a lot quicker though.”
Meanwhile, health unions in England are considering whether to suspend strike action after Health Secretary Steve Barclay said he was willing to discuss a one-off cost of living payment for the current year.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) temporarily called off strikes last week to enter “intensive” negotiations – however, other unions involved in NHS stoppages vowed to press ahead with strikes.
Earlier this week, MPs in the cross-party Public Accounts Committee warned that the NHS is in a “full-blown crisis”.
In the damning report, the MPs said that NHS England is already “falling short” of promises made to clear the national treatment backlog by 2025.
