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Why are some hospitals struggling to cope with patient numbers?

Four hospital trusts across England have recently declared a 'major incident' which means they are struggling to cope with patient numbers.

Dr Clifford Mann President of the College of Emergency Medicine says the NHS's non-emergency helpline, NHS 111 has gone from covering "6 million to almost the full population" leading to a rise in the number of patients being advised to go to A&E.

Dr Clifford Mann added "The intolerable pressure is having an effect on staff...they burn out and choose to go into other professions".

'Not only are there not enough doctors...we don't even fill the vacancies we have. There's a 50% vacancy rate in the last year of training, we recruit well into year one, but by year three doctors choose to specialise or emigrate'.

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