Huge leap in A&E patients left on trolleys

THE number of patients languishing on trolleys before being admitted to A&E has risen dramatically in the past five years, figures show.

Doctors’ leaders described as “unacceptable” new data indicating that 1,597 people had to endure waits of 12 hours or more in the first three months of the year, a 10,546 per cent increase since 2012.

They warned that the trolley waiting times could become longer this winter, with the NHS braced for what is predicted to be the worst flu season in history.

Trolley waits refer to people put on trolleys or chairs, sometimes in side rooms, while a bed is found for them in the hospital. The data showed thousands enduring waits of four hours or more on a trolley after a decision was made to admit them.

In January to March 2012, 40,022 people waited more than four hours, rising to 177,012 for the same period in 2017 – a 342 per cent rise.

The NHS target is for 95 per cent of patients to be discharged, transferred or admitted into hospital for treatment within four hours.

Dr Taj Hassan, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, which analysed the data, said: “The figures show just how bad waiting times have become for patients in depths of winter. Patients should not have to endure such long waits, particularly in colder conditions when frail patients are more vulnerable.

“This huge increase is unacceptable and shows that despite planning for winter every year, we have consistently failed to do enough.

“Winter last year was relatively mild and without a major outbreak of flu.

“There are indications that the flu vaccine will not be as successful this year and as such we anticipate that conditions will be even more difficult this winter.”

The College said there has also been an increase in 12hour waits in the spring

‘We anticipate that conditions will be even more difficult this winter’

months – a time when pressures traditionally start to ease. From April to June 2012, two patients were kept waiting for more than 12 hours, but this figure was 311 in 2017.

Pauline Philip, the NHS’s national director for urgent and emergency care, said: “NHS staff work hard to see every patient as swiftly as they can and any delay is regrettable but those waiting for 12 hours or more represent just 0.028 per cent of the 5,646,725 people who attended accident and emergency departments in the first three months of the year.”