Alarm over 4-hour waits at A&Es in winter crisis

MORE patients could be forced to wait four hours for treatment in struggling A&E departments this winter, NHS doctors warn.

Figures reveal that a dozen NHS trusts failed to treat three in four patients within the target time last month.

Since 2010, the number of people waiting more than four hours in A&E has soared by 557 per cent.

And senior doctors warn that pressure on hospitals will increase this winter, raising the risk that more people will be left on trolleys or in waiting rooms.

Taj Hassan, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said: “Last winter was incredibly tough and all the indicators suggest this winter is going to be no better, and will probably be worse.

“A crowded emergency A SHOCKED crew were told to move their ambulance by an irritated driver as they treated a critically-ill patient.

They found a rude note under a windscreen wiper after blocking a driveway on Friday.

The note, in capitals, said: “You may be saving lives, but don’t park your van in a stupid place and block my drive.” The patient, from Small Heath, Birmingham, department is associated with enhanced harm to patients.

“More patients will die and more will have a prolonged hospital stay. We may or may not get away with a mild winter this year.”

Figures published last week was vomiting blood and rushed to Heartlands Hospital.

In a tweet, West Midlands Ambulance Service said: “Sometimes we just don’t know what to say. At the time, the crew were helping a man who was extremely unwell after vomiting blood.

“They took him on blue lights to hospital where he was in a critical condition. #patientscomefirst”. show the total number of patients enduring long “trolley waits” has risen from 6,932 in October 2010 to 45,532 last month.

Across England’s 190 A&E departments, 84.6 per cent of patients were treated in four hours in September – almost 1.5 per cent fewer than the same time last year.

However, NHS England said: “The latest figures show A&E performance has improved on last year.

“The NHS is now treating more than two million more patients in under four hours than was the case 10 years ago.”

The four-hour target was introduced in 2003, with hospitals aiming to see and admit, transfer or discharge 98 per cent in that time.

But it was relaxed to 95 per cent in 2010 and unofficially scrapped in January when Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the time would have to be revised for non-urgent cases.

Just over half of patients at London North West Healthcare NHS Trust were treated within four hours in January – the worst monthly figure yet.