MORE than 2,000 senior doctors have signed a letter to Prime Minister Theresa May calling on her to increase spending on health and social care.

Consultant anaesthetist Anita Sugavanam used the post box outside the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton yesterday to send the letter on its way.

Dr Sugavanam organised the letter with A&E consultant Rob Galloway and it has been signed by consultants, associated specialists and GPs.

The letter says: “We have reached unacceptable levels of safety concerns for our patients within the NHS.

“We are constantly failing to meet our own and our patients’ expectations.

“We apologise to them and we also empathise with them. We feel handcuffed and paralysed working in this current NHS.

“We are exasperated and feel demoralised because we are not able to provide and develop the excellent care we were trained to give.

“We are simply fighting fires on a daily basis.

“It is impossible to provide effective, efficient, patient-led innovative healthcare which is free at the point of contact when we spend less on healthcare than other comparable countries.”

A spokesman for the Department of Health said: “We are committed to the NHS – that’s why we have invested £10 billion in its own plan to transform services and improve standards of care.

“We have also recently announced almost £900 million of extra funding for adult social care over the next two years to tackle the pressures of our ageing population.

“Furthermore, the NHS is now carrying out record numbers of treatments, with more doctors and nurses providing safer, more personal care than ever before.”

The clinicians said they had hoped to never have to write a letter but they fear there will be a “brain drain” from the health service, with many medics opting to leave the NHS to either work privately or go abroad.