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Worrying pictures show an A&E department swamped with sick children sitting on the floor for hours while awaiting treatment for Strep A and other issues. The photos were taken by shocked mum Chloe Brewer who said staff looked “broken” as they struggled to manage the number of patients at the hospital.
Some of the youngsters had to wait for more than six hours before they were seen even by a triage nurse at Peterborough City Hospital.
Ms Brewer says she made the trip to A&E with her five-year-old son after being unable to get a GP appointment.
He had a 40C fever, he was struggling to breathe and was lethargic.
The single mum says she spent three hours on the waiting room with him before she had to leave Hayden and return home to care for her other son.
She got a call at 2am saying he could be seen by a triage nurse – more than six hours after he arrived.
She told Daily Mirror: “The NHS is on its knees. The scenes were like nothing I could ever have imagined. It was absolutely heaving. You could not even navigate around the waiting room.
“Every chair was taken and there were people all over the floor, including very poorly children sleeping there while they waited.”
She added: “Every child looked very, very unwell. There was a boy next to us whose lips had turned blue as he couldn’t breathe properly.
“He had been there several hours longer than us and still hadn’t been seen.
“The nurses looked completely fed up and broken, which I totally understand. I’m very much a champion of the NHS.”
Ms Brewer, from Stamford in Lincolnshire, said she had no choice but to go to A&E after her son’s condition became worse.
She added: “Everyone’s children I know are poorly right now. Hayden had a cough and a cold very much like a normal winter bug but went downhill on Monday.
“Where we live there is only one doctors’ practice.”
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The child, who has not yet been named, was a pupil at Hove Park School in Hove, East Sussex.
The UK Health Security Agency is now working with Brighton and Hove City Council to support the school and the child’s family following their death.
UKHSA representative Doctor Rachael Hornigold said: “We are extremely saddened to hear about the death of a young child and our thoughts are with their family, friends and local community.”
Strep A or Group A Streptococcus, describes a bacteria that targets the throat and nose. The bacteria is very common and lots of people will have it unknowingly. However, it can trigger infection characterised by symptoms like sore throat and swollen glands.
The bacterial culprit can also lead to other complications, such as scarlet fever, strep throat and impetigo. Despite the rise in deaths this winter, life-threatening outcomes of Strep A are very rare.
Antibiotics, which are the main treatment for the bacterial infection, have been running in short supply, according to reports from some pharmacies. However, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has insisted that this is not the case.
The Prime Minister told MPs: “There are no current shortages of drugs available to treat this and there are well-established procedures in place to ensure that that remains the case.”
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