Government plans to prepare the NHS for winter have been criticised by the UK's most senior A&E doctor, who warned that inadequate provision could see thousands of people die needlessly this year.
Dr Adrian Boyle, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM), warned that plans drawn up this week are wholly insufficient, allowing for less than half of the beds needed to cope with the crisis.
He said that at least 11,000 additional staffed beds should be provided at hospitals across the country, while the prime minister has only pledged 5,000.
The NHS will also offer financial rewards to hospitals that hit waiting-time targets, which Dr Boyle said would mean they simply "game" the system and leave the most seriously ill patients waiting the longest.
The senior doctor said vulnerable elderly patients and the mentally ill would be affected most by the government's poor planning.
He told The Independent: "If you just look at the figures, all the indicators of our target performance, 12-hour waits in hospital, are all going the wrong way. If we compare them to what was going on at the same time a year ago, it makes me anxious that we are heading towards a worse winter than we just had."
Dr Boyle warned the government that it was "blithely sailing towards an iceberg", and that if it allows this winter to be as bad as the last, "it will break the very people who keep this broken system creaking along".
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