SALISBURY District Hospital once again made national headlines this week, as part of a special health report on Channel 4 news.

On Thursday, July 14, the hospital declared a critical incident, due to ambulance delays, staff sickness, and the number of patients waiting to be discharged.

Filming at the Riverside Hotel in Harnham, and following the latest warning from the hospital, British Medical Association chairman and Salisbury GP Helena McKeown was part of the Channel 4 news segment, calling on the Government to do more to support the NHS.

READ MORE: Critical incident at hospital - Caused by ambulance delays and staff sickness

With presenter Matt Frei and health correspondent Victoria Macdonald, the GP spoke of her own experience within the hospital.

“My experience of Salisbury hospital is it's an example of what we're seeing right across the UK. Salisbury Hospital is doing its absolute best,” she said.

“Yesterday (July 13) when I was in surgery at 11am, I tried to admit a woman who had dropped her weight to six stone, a woman in her 70s who was severely unwell and needed admission.

“I spoke to the medical on-call team. They agreed with me she desperately needed admission, but they said that they still hadn't seen patients from the day before on Tuesday that had been sent in and I sent her to a neighbouring Hospital in Dorset.”

When asked if Westminster had addressed these issues, she said: “No. And what I'd like to hear is that we as a country, look after our care staff and our health and social care workers more. That we value them more with better terms and conditions and better pay.

“What I don't want to hear is about student nurses sleeping in their cars and going to food banks and paramedics leaving the ambulance service because the job is too stressful, and they're not valued enough with money.”

McKeown added: “I think some of these people in Westminster need to come and spend some time in our GP surgeries. They need to spend some time with our paramedics.”

Other guests on the news programme were Salisbury MP John Glen, deputy chair of the Conservative Association Ed Rimmer, and leader of Wiltshire Council Richard Clewer.

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