NHS Winter Crisis: What’s the Truth? - Tonight - ITV News

NHS Winter Crisis: What’s the Truth? - Tonight - ITV News:

"This year's winter crisis, particularly the pressures on Hospital A&E’s, has been widely acknowledged as the worst in living memory. 
People waiting for hours on trolleys in corridors, ambulances queuing up outside hospitals and consultants writing to the Prime Minister saying that some are experiencing patients are prematurely dying.

...Dr Taj Hassan, A&E Consultant and President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, feels that the NHS has reached severe pressure levels.

“I think the NHS and certainly emergency departments are probably in their worst state for well over fifteen years…...What we have seen is the longest waits in accident and emergency departments, we have seen more emergency admissions than ever before.”

– DR TAJ HASSAN, A&E CONSULTANT AND PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF EMERGENCY MEDICINE

We hear a distressing story from Nigel Craig, who’s elderly father, 95 years old Robert Craig, fell and waited six and a half hours on a cold bathroom floor, unable to move.

“I was getting really really stressed, I was trying to keep calm, I didn’t want to lose my temper or anything….At this point he was just screaming out.”

– NIGEL...

Patients are being forced to spend long periods waiting in ambulances outside A&E Credit: ITV/Tonight

A key reason for these delays appears to be a shortage of acute beds.

In fact recent research has found that the total number of NHS hospital beds in England has more than halved over the past 30 years - from 300,000 in 1987 to 142,000 in 2017.---*Source: Kings Fund..."

Read on!

You ought to know!

FBI Admits 'Protocol Was Not Followed' For Florida School Shooter After January Tip

FBI Admits 'Protocol Was Not Followed' For Florida School Shooter After January Tip:

"The Federal Bureau of Investigation admitted Friday that “protocols were not followed” after they received a tip in January about shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz.
“We are still investigating the facts,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement. “I am committed to getting to the bottom of what happened in this particular matter, as well as reviewing our processes for responding to information that we receive from the public.”
According to the statement, a person close to Cruz called the FBI’s Public Access Line and reported concerns about him on Jan. 5, 2018."

AM Fruitcake

History for February 18

History for February 18 - On-This-Day.com:
Count Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta 1745, Louis Comfort Tiffany 1848 - Glass maker and interior designer, Enzo Ferrari 1898


Gahan Wilson 1930, John Travolta 1954 - Actor ("Pulp Fiction"), Molly Ringwald 1968 - Actress ("Sixteen Candles)


1564 - The artist Michelanglelo died in Rome.


1861 - In Montgomery, AL, Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as the President of the Confederate States.


1885 - Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" was published in the U.S. for the first time.


1930 - Elm Farm Ollie became the first cow to fly in an airplane.


1930 - The planet Pluto was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh. The discovery was made as a result of photographs taken in January 1930.


1932 - Sonja Henie won her 6th world women’s figure skating title in Montreal, Canada.


1987 - The executives of the Girl Scout movement decided to change the color of the scout uniform from the traditional Girl Scout green to the newer Girl Scout blue.


2001 - NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt, Sr., was killed in a crash during the Daytona 500 race.

FBI: Over Four Times More People Stabbed to Death Than Killed with Rifles of Any Kind | Breitbart

FBI: Over Four Times More People Stabbed to Death Than Killed with Rifles of Any Kind | Breitbart:

"The FBI Uniform Crime Report (UCR) for 2016 shows more than four times as many people were stabbed to death than were killed with rifles of any kind.
And because the category of rifles covers every type of rifle, this means there would be an even greater divide between the number of people stabbed to death versus those shot to death with an AR-15 or similar rifle."

The way we were-----Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits

Boob-tube-----101 Iconic TV Shows of the 1960s (A tribute to the greatest decade for T...

Yeah, right.-----South Korea agrees to pay North Korea $2.6M for Olympic expenses: report | Fox News

South Korea agrees to pay North Korea $2.6M for Olympic expenses: report | Fox News:
"South Korea on Wednesday approved a plan to pay North Korea's Olympic expenses to the tune of approximately $2.6 million, the Korea Herald reported.
Officials in South Korea suggested the move, which will cover the costs of hundreds of performers who arrived in PyeongChang as part of the North's delegation, is another sign that tensions in the region have cooled..."