An ICU doctor has said that those who do not social distance or wear masks 'have blood on their hands'.
Professor Hugh Montgomery says that hospitals are facing a 'tsunami' of patients, saying that it is feared things would get worse after New Year.
Speaking to Radio 5 Live, he said that people need to accept that it will be a quiet year, urging them not to gather in groups.
Prof Montgomery, who on an ICU ward in London's Whittington Hospital, said: "We are in a lot of trouble in UK intensive care now.
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"Just huge numbers coming in, my heart goes out as well to our emergency departments, seeing a tsunami in the last week or two of cases. Everyone is working at maximum stretch."
Speaking to Rachel Burden, the professor who also leads a research group at UCL, said the new variant isn't to blame as it's only 'slightly' more transmissible and doesn't cause worse symptoms.
He said: "It is making me actually very angry now that people are laying the blame on the virus, and it is not the virus, it is people, people are not washing their hands, they are not wearing their masks."
He said that they 'have blood on their hands', adding: "They are spreading this virus. Other people will spread it and people will die. They won't know they have killed people but they have."
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He added: "I am watching whole families getting wiped out here, and it's got to stop."
Prof Montgomery said that it's a 'myth' that only elderly people are in hospital.
He said: "The people we are getting are, like the first wave, my age really. I am 58 and I would say half the patients are younger than me. It is middle-aged people or a little bit older that we are getting."
He urged the public not to gather for New Year's Eve parties, saying: "I am really sorry this New Year is going to be miserable, but it has to be. Please don't gather in masses. Don't make this a last swansong."
Featured Image Credit: PATopics: UK News
