NHS in England records worst A&E waiting results on record

The NHS in England is performing at its worst-ever recorded level against targets for A&E, cancer and trolley waits, figures show.

Figures for December reveal just 86.2% of A&E patients were seen within four hours, the worst figure on record.

The target for hospitals is 95% - a figure emergency departments have now not met since July 2015.

Dr Chris Moulton, vice president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, told Sky News he thinks the A&E figures for January will be "even worse".

Meanwhile, the number of people waiting more than two months to start cancer treatment after an urgent referral was 25,157 in 2016 - the highest on record.

This is an increase on the 23,760 recorded in 2015 and 13,191 in 2010.

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Delayed transfers of care - known as bed-blocking - is also the highest on record, while the number of patients waiting more than 12 hours to be admitted to a bed was at its highest ever level in 2016.

Trolley waits refers to people put on trolleys or in side rooms while a bed is found for them.

The new data shows that 2,593 people waited more than 12 hours to be admitted in 2016, more than double the 1,206 in the previous year and 489 in 2014.

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The number for December 2016 - 550 - is the second highest monthly figure on record.

Attendance at A&E departments continues to rise, with 23,571,831 visits in 2016, up from 22,394,734 the year before.

Delayed transfers of care were responsible for 2,157,155 lost hospital days in 2016, up from 1,747,318 the year before and 1,560,037 in 2014.

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Ambulance response times across the board also continue to be missed.

Responding to the statistics, Matthew Swindells, NHS England's National Director: Operations and Information, said: "NHS frontline services came under real pressure in December with A&E, ambulances and NHS 111 all helping record numbers of patients and callers.

"Despite these pressures, it is a tribute to the professionalism and dedication of doctors, nurses and other staff in A&E that they continue to see, treat, admit or discharge the vast majority of patients within four hours."

Shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth said Prime Minister Theresa May had "lost control" of the health service.

He said: "These are some of the worst figures we have seen.

"Experts are saying that standards are being pushed back 15 years or more.

"Behind each of these statistics is a patient suffering and in unacceptable discomfort. It's making Theresa May's utter disregard for the dire state of the NHS all the more disgraceful."

Speaking at a Downing Street press conference, Mrs May said: "We have put record funding into the National Health Service. I recognise that it is under pressure - that's why we will be putting the £10bn extra into the NHS.

"But if you look at what's been happening in A&E, in December we had a record number - the busiest day in A&E that has taken place in the NHS.

"We are now seeing something like 3,000 more people being seen within the four-hour standard every single day in the NHS.

"The staff working in the NHS are doing an excellent job, day in and day out.

"We are putting funding in and we are seeing higher numbers of doctors, higher numbers of nurses, higher numbers of paramedics in our hospitals, and they are providing excellent care."