100,000 OAPs face5 24-hour A&E waits
Medics warn long delays in admissions are costing lives
MORE than 100,000 over-65s had to wait more than 24 hours in A&E to be admitted to hospital last year, shocking figures show.
Data from 73 hospital trusts, about half the total, shows that in all 153,000 patients endured 24-hour waits, up from 15,000 in 2019.
Medics warn people will have died due to the delays and estimate the NHS is short of 10,000 hospital beds.
Dr Adrian Boyle, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said: “These patients are always people who are sick who need to be admitted to hospital.
“The majority are those who have general medical problems and are elderly with multiple conditions.
“Quite a lot also have mental health problems. We know that staying 12 hours is harmful for people, so staying longer certainly won’t be good for people.”
He said for every 72 stays of 12 hours in A&E there would be one excess death. The college estimates that more than 250 patients a week died last year because of A&E delays.
Dr Boyle said: “There was also a study in France showing that if people over 75 spend more than 12 hours in the emergency department, they had a 5% increased risk of death in the subsequent admission.”
Freedom of Information data compiled by the Liberal Democrats shows that this February, 44,417 people waited more than 12 hours in A&E, up from 521 in February 2019 and just 22 in July 2015.
It represents a huge increase on pre-pandemic figures and 600-fold increase on the total in 2015, the last time the NHS met its target of seeing 95% of patients within four hours.
The 153,000 patients from 73 trusts who waited more than 24 hours in A&E before a bed could be found for them only includes patients who were ill enough to need a hospital bed, not those who could be treated and sent home.
It is up 17% in a year after a sevenfold increase from 2021 to 2022. .
Lib Dem leader Ed Davey said: “It is appalling that so many elderly and vulnerable people are forced to put up with these terrifying waits as our health service teeters on the brink.
“Behind each of these figures is a story of someone waiting in pain, worried sick about getting the care that they need.” East Kent Hospitals had the worst record of all the 73 trusts, with 14,400 patients waiting more than a day, almost one in 10 of the total number of A&E patients.
Dr Boyle said: “There is a deepseated lack of capacity in our hospitals. We still have the least number of beds per head of any European country bar Sweden. The pandemic disrupted things, but the problems were set in stone beforehand.”
A Department of Health and Social Care statement said: “We are committed to ensuring people get the emergency care they need.
“A&E four-hour performance improved in February compared to January, despite the highest number of A&E attendances on record and the impact of industrial action.”