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NHS: crisis feared as record patients wait more than four hours in A&E Record A&E waits show NHS is cracking under pressure - doctors’ chief
(about 2 hours later)
Record numbers of patients had to wait more than four hours for A&E treatment last week, fuelling increasing fears the NHS is facing a winter crisis even before very cold weather has arrived. Figures revealing that record numbers of patients are waiting more than four hours for A&E treatment show the NHS has become “a system cracking under extreme pressure” and people are suffering, the leader of Britain’s doctors has said.
Growing pressures on hospitals also meant that emergency departments recorded their second-worst performance ever against the politically important target that 95% of patients should be treated within four hours. Dr Mark Porter, chair of council at the British Medical Association, claimed that the care patients received was being affected by growing numbers of the sick facing unacceptable delays in receiving treatment and that the health service couldn’t cope with the sheer number of patients needing help from hospitals, GP surgeries and ambulance services.
Porter was responding to a set of grim A&E performance statistics issued on Friday by NHS England which have fuelled increasing fears that the health service is facing a winter crisis even before very cold weather has arrived.
Growing pressures on hospitals also meant that emergency departments recorded their second-worst performance against the politically important target that 95% of patients should be treated within four hours.
In the seven days to Sunday 7 December, the NHS across England managed to treat and then admit or discharge just 87.7% of the 286,429 patients who arrived at hospital A&E units. That was significantly down on the 90.4% performance seen the week before.In the seven days to Sunday 7 December, the NHS across England managed to treat and then admit or discharge just 87.7% of the 286,429 patients who arrived at hospital A&E units. That was significantly down on the 90.4% performance seen the week before.
The highest-ever number of patients were also forced to spend between four and 12 hours on a trolley waiting to be admitted last week, in a further sign the service is struggling to meet the rising demand for care, despite ministers giving it an extra £700m to help it cope. The highest-ever number of patients were also forced to spend between four and 12 hours on a trolley waiting to be admitted last week, in a further sign the service is struggling to meet the rising demand for care, despite ministers giving it an extra £700m from elsewhere in the Department of Health’s budget to help it cope.
NHS England, which runs the service and allocates its £96bn budget, admitted that hospitals are being put under “extra pressure” and identified the rising number of attendances at A&E as a key reason. “Patients should be treated on the basis of clinical need rather than an arbitrary target, but these figures point to a system cracking under extreme pressure, with patient care suffering,” Porter said.
It is “pulling out all the stops” to avoid not being able to cope, it insisted. While the NHS traditionally faced a spike in demand over the winter, “this year it’s experienced a spring, summer and autumn crisis as well, leaving no spare capacity in hospitals as we approach winter”.
In total 35,373 patients waited more than four hours in what the NHS calls Type 1 A&E units – those situated at hospitals – before they were treated, the highest figure since records began in late 2010. The previous highest figure was 34,595 in April 2013, just after the problem-strewn launch of the NHS’s new 111 telephone advice service led to a surge in demand. Porter, a hospital doctor in Coventry, added: “This is not just a crisis in emergency care. Bed shortages and high numbers of patients inappropriately in hospital beds are now major stress factors on the system, leading to unacceptable delays in treating and discharging patients. Outside of hospitals, GP surgeries are struggling to cope with unprecedented levels of demand.”
The health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has pinned his hopes on the extra £700m helping the NHS to hire more staff and increase its stock of beds in order to avoid coming under unsustainable pressure before May’s general election.
But Porter said there had been “a total failure by government to come up with a meaningful plan to deal with this”.
Labour called on ministers to urgently set out new measures to relieve the strain.
NHS England, which runs the service and allocates its £96bn budget, admitted that hospitals were being put under extra pressure and identified the rising number of attendances at A&E as a key reason.
It was “pulling out all the stops” to try to cope, it said.
In total, 35,373 patients waited more than four hours in what the NHS calls Type 1 A&E units – those situated at hospitals – before they were treated, the highest figure since records began in late 2010. The previous highest figure was 34,595 in April 2013, just after the problem-strewn launch of the NHS’s new 111 telephone advice service led to a surge in demand.
Last week’s 35,373 is also more than 50% up on the 21,276 patients who waited more than four hours in the same week last year.Last week’s 35,373 is also more than 50% up on the 21,276 patients who waited more than four hours in the same week last year.
In addition, 7,760 patients who had been treated then endured between four and 12 hours on a trolley as they waited to be admitted to the hospital from its A&E. That is more than 2,000 more than the week before, and is further evidence that hospitals are facing mounting difficulty in dealing with the growing number of patients and increased complexity of illness and injury they are facing. In addition, 7,760 patients who had been treated in A&E endured between four and 12 hours on a trolley as they waited to be admitted to the hospital. That is more than 2,000 higher than the week before, and is further evidence that hospitals are facing mounting difficulties in dealing with the growing number of patients and increased complexity of illness and injury. It is also more than double the 3,666 patients who experienced a trolley wait in the same week in 2013.
It is also more than double the 3,666 patients who experienced a trolley wait in the same week in 2013. The DoH maintained that the NHS was well prepared to deal with winter and that the service had “robust plans” in place to cope.
Dame Barbara Hakin, NHS England’s national director of commissioning operations, said: “This week over 110,100 emergency admissions to hospital and 436,229 attendances – up nearly 30,000 on the average for the same week over the past years. Unsurprisingly this level of demand continues to put extra pressure on our hospitals. “We know that the NHS is busier than ever before, which is why we’ve given the NHS a record £700m this winter for more doctors, nurses and beds. The NHS has ensured that there are plans in every area to manage the extra demand”, a DoH spokesman said.
“But the NHS remains resilient and is pulling out all the stops, with local hospitals, ambulances, GPs, home health services and local councils all working hard to open extra beds and seven day services using the extra winter funding that has been made available”, she added. Dame Barbara Hakin, NHS England’s national director of commissioning operations, said: “This week [we had] over 110,100 emergency admissions to hospital and 436,229 attendances – up nearly 30,000 on the average for the same week over the past years. Unsurprisingly, this level of demand continues to put extra pressure on our hospitals.
“But the NHS remains resilient and is pulling out all the stops, with local hospitals, ambulances, GPs, home health services and local councils all working hard to open extra beds and seven day services using the extra winter funding that has been made available.”
But Andy Burnham, the shadow health secretary, said: “Last week was the worst week on record for patients waiting at A&E but the government is acting as if it’s not happening. Ministers can’t carry on like this. Labour has been warning the government for months about the growing crisis in A&E but it has failed to act. But even ministers must now accept that these figures are a worrying wake up call.”