London's doctors, politicians and health care supporters mocked US President Donald Trump on Saturday for telling the US National Rifle Association that an unnamed London hospital had “blood all over the floors” from an epidemic of stabbings, suggesting countries with tough gun laws have just as much violent crime as the US.
"The Royal London Hospital has cut the number of our young patients returning after further knife attacks from 45 per cent to 1 per cent," Professor Karim Brohi, trauma surgeon at The Royal London Hospital and Director of London’s major trauma system, said on Saturday.
"To suggest guns are part of the solution is ridiculous. Gunshot wounds are at least twice as lethal as knife injuries and more difficult to repair," he added.
We are hugely proud of our world leading NHS trauma service, @karimbrohi and all his colleagues:https://t.co/1aaqMaWgeM
— Barts Health (@NHSBartsHealth) May 5, 2018
Lord Alan Sugar, the entrepreneur best known in Britain for his hit television series The Apprentice, said most Americans "have no clue" about what goes on outside their state or country.
.@piersmorgan You cant keep sucking up to Trump. He says in London one of our famous hospital is like a war zone with knife incidents.LIE. How can you endorse this man. Most Americans have no clue about what goes on outside thier state let alone country.They believe his lies
— Lord Sugar (@Lord_Sugar) May 5, 2018
NHS Millions, a support group for the National Health Service, branded the president a liar in a comment retweeted 4,700 times by midday on Saturday.
Donald Trump has once again lied about our NHS. Claiming 'there's blood all over the floors of this hospital.They say it's as bad as a military war zone hospital".
— NHS Million 💙 (@NHSMillion) May 5, 2018
Please RT if you agree that he should keep his opinions to himself about the NHS and the UK! pic.twitter.com/SNniKmuGT7
President Trump told the NRA on Friday that he'd read about a UK hospital that sounded like a war zone.
“I recently read a story that, in London, which has unbelievably tough gun laws, a once very prestigious hospital – right in the middle – is like a war zone for horrible stabbing wounds,” Mr Trump told gun-rights advocates in Dallas on Friday. Mr Trump didn’t identify the source of the information and didn’t provide the name of the hospital.
“They don’t have guns. They have knives. And, instead, there’s blood all over the floors of this hospital,” Mr Trump said. “They say it’s as bad as a military war-zone hospital.”
“Knives, knives, knives. London hasn’t been used to that. They’re getting used to it. It’s pretty tough.”
Mr Trump is due to visit London on July 13 after cancelling his February visit. He is expected to be met with protesters during the "working visit", rather than the "state visit" invitation extended by Prime Minister Theresa May.
Really warming up the crowd for his visit in July... BBC News - Trump: Knife crime left London hospital 'like a war zone' https://t.co/Iol4eY9TFn
— Atli Már Sigurðsson (@mrsigurdsson) May 5, 2018
While 52 people were killed in London in the first 100 days of 2018 and murders rose from 101 to 153 in the year end March 2018, the magnitude of violent crime is well below that of the US. An estimated 17,250 murders were recorded in 2016, FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program data shows. New York City and the New York Police Department reported 335 homicides in 2016.
