"Like a warzone" - brother of York Hospital patient describes scene as NHS crisis continues

While Mr Morgan, who lives in Malton, has no complaints over his sister’s care, he described what he saw in the hospital as a “war zone.”

Mr Morgan, 60, said: “I could not believe what I saw. It’s like a war zone in there. Off the scale.

"The first time I saw it, it made me feel sick. There’s nothing that prepares you for seeing what it’s like.

"Some ambulance drivers apparantly were waiting so long that they couldn’t get back on shift.“Each time I’ve been there there’s been about 20 or 30 people lying in the corridors and it’s difficult to navigate the way through.

"It’s just utterly unbelieveable. This is beyond urgent, beyond catastrophic.”

Mr Morgan said he had written to his MP Kevin Hollinrake to make him aware of the situation.

York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust stopped short of declaring a critical incident earlier this week, but a spokesperson said the hospitals had seen two of their busiest days ever and urged families to help with discharging medically fit patients.

On Friday, the Trust’s chair Alan Downey said the situation was “back under control.”

He tweeted: “Colleagues right across the Trus have done a fantastic job since Tuesday to bring a crisis situation back under control.

"The situation now is far from ideal, but it’s much better and much calmer than it was.”