Patients with multiple illnesses are being harmed by an NHS struggling to cope with millions of people suffering several conditions at once, doctors have warned.Two-thirds of medics say they have witnessed poorer care or patient harm because responsibility for increasingly complex patients is fragmented between different specialists and services, according to new Royal College of Physicians data.Doctors described patients seeing numerous consultants, receiving conflicting advice, suffering dangerous drug interactions and undergoing duplicate tests because no single clinician had oversight of their overall care.In one case disclosed exclusively to GB News, a woman was receiving treatment which could worsen her diabetes.Diabetes specialists had been alerted to the danger, but when she reported rising blood sugar levels, her concerns were not taken seriously. Days later she was admitted to hospital with a potentially life-threatening complication: a diabetes complication due to severe insulin deficiency.Another doctor said they routinely saw people as their “5th or 6th consultant” and spent much of their time bringing together previous opinions and resolving conflicting guidance.They described specialists concentrating on their own area – telling a breathless patient, for example, “it’s not your heart” – without investigating other possible causes such as lung or blood problems. Analysis of NHS records found 15.1 million adults – almost one in three – are living with two or more long-term conditions | PAThe warnings come as the NHS faces the growing challenge of patients living for years with several illnesses simultaneously.Analysis of NHS records found 15.1 million adults – almost one in three – are living with two or more long-term conditions. Another 13.5 million had one long-term condition. The burden is expected to grow sharply as the population ages.The new RCP findings suggest the health service is already struggling with the complexity.Its survey of 452 physicians found 90 per cent had seen at least some increase in patients with multiple long-term conditions, while 55 per cent reported a significant rise.Nearly half – 47 per cent – said patients with at least two long-term conditions accounted for almost half their caseload. Another 36 per cent said they accounted for most of it.Some 78 per cent of doctors said they often or very often treated patients with multiple conditions who were under 80 and would not normally be considered severely frail.Doctors warned because responsibilities are often split between different services, drug changes are not communicated, tests are repeated, treatments are delayed and medicines are prescribed for one disease that worsen another.One doctor described patients suffering falls and sudden falls in blood pressure as being advised to increase drugs for heart conditions even though the same drugs increase their risk of low blood pressure.For patients and families, fragmented care can also lead to an exhausting carousel of appointments.One doctor said kidney patients on dialysis were missing diabetes appointments because they clashed with treatment or they could not get transport to hospital.Another described a dementia patient whose insulin was given by community nurses. She could not tell the hospital doctor which insulin she was taking, the dose or her blood sugar readings – and the hospital could not access the information.And a third described seriously ill patients falling between mental health services because they did not meet the criteria for specialist eating disorder care. They were instead referred to general mental health teams, which, the doctor said, lacked the expertise and had extremely long waiting lists. That meant some were repeatedly admitted to hospital for emergency care before being discharged to wait for treatment, creating a “revolving door” of admissions while they continued to self-harm or starve themselves.Doctors also warned patients were falling through the cracks because different parts of the NHS were not sharing vital information.One said: “Poor… communications due to differences in systems used, i.e., IT services and programmes. There should be one system for the whole country to use for patient history access.”RCP clinical vice president Dr Hilary Williams said: “More people are living with multiple long-term conditions, but too often system pressures mean that responsibility for their care becomes fragmented across different teams and services. Our survey shows doctors are increasingly concerned about the impact this can have on patient care, with risks including delays, duplication, poor communication and important issues being missed. Treating patients with multiple long-term conditions is now a routine part of physicians’ work. These patients need coordinated, holistic care, but managing multiple interacting conditions is fundamentally different from treating a single condition in isolation. It requires senior clinical judgement, time to consider the whole patient, and clear lines of responsibility across specialties and services.”The RCP, which based its findings on a recent survey of 452 members, said services, training and workforce planning must now adapt to the growing complexity of patients rather than continuing to treat diseases largely in isolation.