their respects to the late pope benedict xvi, whose body is lying in state at the vatican. the coffin of football legend pele has arrived at the stadium of his former club, santos, for a public wake. if you have just joined if you havejustjoined us, welcome to bbc news. we begin in the uk, senior doctors are warning that some hospital accident and emergency departments are in a complete state of crisis because of the extreme pressures facing the national health service this winter. the royal college of emergency medicine says it s impossible to provide the best standard of care and there s no doubt patients are being harmed. our health correspondent catherine burns reports. we are used to seeing pictures like this every winter now. patients waiting in corridors and outside in ambulances as health experts talk about a crisis in care. this year the warning voices seem louder than ever. most of the nhs employees would say it has been one of the top it has been one of the t
legend pele has arrived at the stadium of his former club, santos, for a public wake. hello and welcome. in the uk, senior doctors are warning that some hospital accident and emergency departments are in a complete state of crisis because of the extreme pressures facing the national health service this winter. the royal college of emergency medicine says it s impossible to provide the best standard of care and there s no doubt patients are being harmed. our health correspondent catherine burns reports. we are used to seeing pictures like this every winter now. patients waiting in corridors and outside in ambulances as health experts talk about a crisis in care. this year the warning voices seem louder than ever. most of the nhs employees would say it has been one of the top most of the nhs employees would say it has been one of the toughest winters they can remember. i feel uncomfortable, deeply uncomfortable about the level of care we are sometimes, because of the degr
at the time. but we hear that the decisions he made, there is nothing he can say to you that can improve things. what would you like him to say? things. what would you like him to sa ? , ., , things. what would you like him to sa ? , . , ., things. what would you like him to sa? say? anything he has to say could have been said say? anything he has to say could have been said a say? anything he has to say could have been said a long say? anything he has to say could have been said a long time - say? anything he has to say could have been said a long time ago i say? anything he has to say could l have been said a long time ago that we are nearly four years since the beginning of the pandemic. it is continuing, people are continuing to die every week. i don t think he has got anything helpful to say at this point other than to tell the truth about why decisions were made and why failures happen in the kale that was at the heart of his government. do you think he can be
of countermeasures. why did you not say those things? say those things? that is not howl would characterise say those things? that is not howl would characterise the say those things? that is not howl would characterise the situation. i would characterise the situation. the first thing is that i am not confident that by this cabinet meeting, i will have known that sage had concluded that containment was lost. and in fact, i don t think that i was told that for a number of days after. as i said, i m not exactly sure when i was told that. but this meeting was the morning after the minutes of sage coming to that conclusion. secondly, at this point in the department and nphet and the health service, we were working extremely hard to prepare for the pandemic. i had commissioned the action plan and work was under way on that and phe. we were attempting and pushing phe to build the testing system and all of the other things we were directly responsible for. as i say, we were
were having to do things that in future ought to be done by other departments or at the centre because it should have been a whole government response earlier. that is my reflection. and what about after the end of february when the cross government machine ramps up on the scale of the crisis is understood and steps have to be taken? to what extent had the department for health and social are got on top of promoting or suggesting the sort of countermeasures and infection control that ultimately were at the heart of the government response? from the end of february when the prime minister took the chair of cobra which was symbolically very important, when the chancellor of the duchy of lancaster got stuck in and you heard from him how he came to a cobra, was alarmed, asked some very good questions, followed that “p very good questions, followed that up with me and from. you might thinki up with me and from. you might think i was unhappy to receive that e mail on those questi