Winter-style NHS crisis ... in middle of summer
THE NHS is in the grip of the worst bed- blocking crisis since records began, with nearly 6,500 patients languishing in hospital.
Over the summer it experienced problems normally associated with winter months, with wards overcrowded and sick patients having to stay on trolleys as there were no free beds.
Waiting times in A&E for this summer were worse than most winters and experts said the crisis would worsen over the next few weeks with the onset of winter illnesses such as flu and norovirus.
NHS figures from August show that the NHS lost 188,340 days to bedblocking – when other patients could have been treated instead.
This is 30 per cent higher than the same month last year and the worst since records began in August 2010.
And a snapshot count carried out on the last Thursday of that month showed there were 6,448 patients stuck in hospital unable to go home. This figure is again the worst since August 2010 and a quarter higher than the same time last year. It represents five per cent of the 130,717 hospital beds in England.
Monthly performance data from NHS England also show summer A&E waiting times at levels associated with winter. Summers are traditionally quieter for hospitals as fewer patients are ill and it usually enables them to catch up on surgery waiting lists.
During June, July and August an average of 90.6 per cent of patients were seen in four hours compared to a target of 95 per cent. This was worse than all winters since 2004 except the most recent – December to February – when the figure was 89 per cent.
Dr Mark Holland, president of the Society of Acute Medicine, which represents staff in acute care, said the bed-blocking crisis is causing the NHS to be locked in an ‘eternal winter’.
‘The NHS is on its knees and, this winter, areas will implode around the country,’ he said. ‘There is no reserve left. Over the coming weeks and months, if we see a major increase in admissions due to flu or bed closures due to norovirus, we will collapse.’
The crisis is being fuelled by a lack of social care funding, which means elderly patients cannot be discharged as care has not been set up for them at home. They take up hospital beds, which leads to overcrowding in A&E as sick patients cannot be moved on to wards.
Furthermore, the lack of care for the elderly at home means they are more prone to falls and infections and end up in A&E.
Only yesterday the head of the Care Quality Commission took the unprecedented step of appealing for more cash for social care because of the strain it was creating for hospitals.
David Behan published figures showing that eight in ten hospitals were failing to meet basic safety standards – partly because they were so overcrowded. The data also showed hospitals were missing other key targets for cancer, routine operations and ambulance response times.
The Local Government Association also warned yesterday that social care for the elderly and disabled could be facing a potential funding gap of at least £2.6billion.
Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, said: ‘Cuts to social care are not just a false economy, but they are now having a tragic human cost with thousands of older people stuck in hospital.’
Matthew Swindells, NHS England’s national director of operations and information, said the poor figures were a reflection of ‘rising social care pressures on emergency admissions’.
‘NHS is on its knees’