Public security

London’s hospitals ‘look like war zones due to gun and knife crime epidemic’

Dr Mark Griffiths, lead surgeon at Barts Health NHS Trust in East London, said: “Some of my military colleagues have described their practice here as similar to being at (Camp) Bastion.

“We used to look after people in their twenties. Now people are often in their mid to late teens and children in school uniforms are being admitted under our care with knife and gun wounds.

“Whereas a young boy being stabbed five or six years ago would have been a horror story, now it’s normal. People expect to see people being killed on a daily basis. Members of the public who are not involved in gangs or violence let this pass without comment and you get the society you deserve if you ignore violence.”

There have been 50 people killed in London so far this year – 50. That’s an epidemic. Law and order has been neglected and done on the cheap for too long. It’s time to bring back stop and search, invest in the police force and start dishing out longer prison sentences to violent offenders.