Doctors warn of ‘year-round crisis’

LEADING DOCTORS have warned of a “year-round crisis” in emergency care in the NHS.

The British Medical Association (BMA) said that emergency care services in England are performing as badly in the summer – traditionally a quieter time for the health service – as it did in some of the previous winters.

It comes off the back of last winter where the health service struggled to meet key performance targets as it battled poor weather and a difficult flu season. The BMA analysis examined data released each month by NHS England on emergency admissions, “trolley waits” for more than four hours and the percentage of A&E patients who are seen within the four-hour target.

The analysis found that almost 200,000 more patients were left stranded for more than four hours on a trolley waiting for care after being admitted to hospital in the most recent winter period compared to the winter of 2011. Meanwhile, the rate of compliance with the four-hour waiting targets for patients to be seen, treated, admitted or discharged from A&E was lower in the summer of 2018 than the winters of 2011 to 2015.

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, chairman of council at the BMA, said the “pressure on the NHS has developed into an all-year crisis”.

Dr Simon Walsh, an emergency care doctor and member of the BMA’s consultants committee, added: “Behind these figures lie real stories of misery. Tens of thousands of patients are being left in crowded, cramped corridors, waiting for treatment.”

An NHS England spokesman said its planning for this winter was “already well under way”, with evening and weekend GP appointments improving people’s access to care and action by hospitals and local councils to tackle bed-blocking.