Trolley waits of more than 12 hours double for elderly

Trolley waits of more than 12 hours in A&E among elderly people have more than doubled in two years, the new figures also show.

Data shows a huge jump in the number of very long waits among those aged 70 and over – from 34,088 in 2013/14to88,252in2015/16.

Among all ages, there were 185,017 trolley waits of 12 hours or more in 2015/16 – up from 157,895 the year before and 87,213 in 2013/14. Of the waits in 2015/16, 56,013 were for people over the age of 80.

Other data published by NHS Digital shows 37% of people going to A&E are discharged with no followup needed, while 20% are discharged to their GP and another 20% are admitted to hospital.

On Monday, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt suggested he planned to alter the four-hour target for patients to be dealt with in A&E, saying it should only apply to the most urgent cases. Hospitals have not hit the target nationally since summer 2015. Mr Hunt told MPs in the Commonsthatuptoathirdof patients do not need to be seen in A&E. In 2014, Mr Hunt took his own children to A&E because he did not want to wait to see a GP.

But Chris Moulton, vice-president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said there were manyvalidcasesamongthe 37% of people discharged with no follow-up. He said: “Many people go to A&E departments and leave with the advice and reassurance they need. An example is a child who has been taken toA&Ewithabiglumpon theirheadafterfallingover.

“We might check them over and say we think they’re OK and they are discharged, but that is still a good and valid use of an emergency department’s time.

“Even if we did get rid of that 37% of people from A&E, it still wouldn’t do anything about these old people laying on trolleys waiting for beds.”