Advertisement

Doctors warn of NHS winter meltdown as figures show worst AE figures on record

PA
PA

Doctors warned of an NHS winter meltdown today as official figures showed the worst A&E figures on record.

One in six patients waited longer than four hours in A&E in England during October — the worst-ever performance since a target was introduced, according to data.

Just 83.6 per cent of patients arriving at A&E were treated or admitted in four hours, while more than 80,000 people requiring a hospital bed were left stuck on trolleys, according to the figures from NHS England.

Performance was even worse at main A&Es, where only around three in four patients were treated within four hours.

There were also longer waits for patients awaiting non-emergency surgery and cancer treatment as the NHS was hit by unprecedented demand.

Health experts warned of casualty units “imploding”, with fears that the crisis could be made even worse by a flu outbreak.

Under the NHS Constitution, 95 per cent of A&E patients have to be admitted to a ward, transferred or discharged within four hours. This was last met in July 2015.

Today’s figures are the worst since at least 2010 and are also believed to be the worst since data started being collected in 2004 in order to meet an earlier 98 per cent target.

Dr Katherine Henderson, a consultant at St Thomas’ Hospital and president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said: “We have reached a new low. These figures should be a source of shame for politicians. Our staff are stretched beyond their limits.”

Today’s figures reveal 2,170,510 people sought emergency care at hospitals last month, up 91,000 on October last year.

A total of 80,092 waited more than four hours on a trolley after being judged sick enough to be admitted to a ward — 30,000 more than a year earlier.

The number waiting more than 12 hours on a trolley more than trebled, to 726. Two London trusts — Barking, Havering and Redbridge and King’s College Hospital — were barely able to treat half of their sickest patients within the four-hour target.

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: “Under Boris Johnson the NHS is in crisis and we’re heading for a winter of misery for patients.”

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: “The last thing our NHS can afford is Labour’s plans for a four-day week and uncontrolled immigration, which would cripple our health service .”

Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson said: “We could stop Brexit and get on with building a brighter future, which would be more money for our NHS.”

Nuffield Trust chief economist Professor John Appleby said: “The next government will immediately be faced with one of the bleakest winters in the NHS’s history.”

The Society for Acute Medicine said acute and emergency care in the NHS is “imploding” before the expected winter crisis hits.

The figures came as ministers were urged to say before the election when a plan on tackling long waits would be unveiled after a damning report by the Commons Public Accounts Committee.

Read more

Labour vows to outspend Tories on health with £26bn NHS 'rescue' plan