Scale of pressure on NHS revealed
80,000 kept waiting over four hours
HEALTH: The number of people waiting to be admitted to hospital from A&E departments in England has hit record levels, as new figures show the scale of pressure the NHS has faced this winter.
Almost 80,000 patients were kept waiting more than four hours, while nearly 1,000 faced a wait of over 12 hours.
THE NUMBER of people waiting to be admitted to hospital from A&E departments in England has hit record levels, as new figures show the pressure the NHS has faced this winter.
Almost 80,000 patients were kept waiting more than four hours, while nearly 1,000 faced a wait of over 12 hours.
Health charity the Nuffield Trust called the figures “dismal reading” and said corridors had seemingly become “the new emergency wards”.
Another key measure of NHS performance, the proportion of people seen within four hours of arriving at A&E, was the lowest on record at 85.1 per cent. The target is 95 per cent.
Some 1.9 million attendances were recorded at A&Es in January, down slightly on January 2016, but total attendances in the 12 months to January showed a year-on-year increase of four per cent.
Jim Mackey, chief executive of NHS Improvement said: “The pressures the NHS has been facing have been intense but, despite this, we have to recognise that NHS staff managed to see almost nine out of 10 patients within the four-hour target time.”
The figures, from NHS England, also show the number of people waiting more than two months to start cancer treatment after an urgent referral hit a new high of 2,437, or roughly one in five of patients seen by GPs.
The target for this type of referral is 85 per cent, but in January the level was just 79.7 per cent, the lowest on record. Emma Greenwood, Cancer Research UK’s director of policy, described the numbers as “completely unacceptable”.
She said: “Urgent action is needed now to give our patients the care they deserve and the best chance of surviving.”
January’s figure for delayed transfers of care, so-called “bedblocking”, were the second-highest on record. The total number of hospital days lost through delayed transfers were 197,054, up 23 per cent on January 2016.
Nuffield Trust chief economist and director of research John Appleby said: “The numbers of patients stuck on a trolley waiting for a hospital bed have gone through the roof. These are vulnerable people with acute medical needs.
“The problems in social care are well known and cuts to services have been a big driver of these problems. That’s why the extra money announced in yesterday’s Budget is welcome.
“But with the NHS experiencing its own pressures and the social care funding gap set to be at least £2bn in the coming year alone, there are no guarantees that patients at A&E can expect let-up any time soon.”
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said: “NHS staff have worked exceptionally hard this winter and, despite the additional pressure, treated more than 1.6 million people in A&E within four hours in January.
“We have however seen a number of unacceptable cases of poor performance and patient care that cannot be repeated.
“That’s why NHS England has launched a plan to get hospitals back on track to meet the 95 per cent standard, supported by the Budget announcements of £100m for A&E and the £2bn social care funding that will help to improve hospital discharge.”
Patients will be able to look up GP waiting times under plans announced by the chief executive of NHS England.
Simon Stevens told MPs on the Commons Public Accounts Committee people should have access to waiting times for routine conditions.
Urgent action is needed now to give our patients the care they deserve Emma Greenwood, Cancer Research UK’s director of policy