NHS England 'on its knees' as performance figures hit new lows

The NHS was “on its knees” even before winter had begun, health service bosses have said as figures showed it missed key waiting-time targets for A&E care, operations and cancer treatment.

The performance of the NHS in England in November was yet again its worst ever, prompting concern that it cannot keep up with a relentless rise in the number of people needing care.

Doctors’ leaders called for Boris Johnson’s government to take urgent action to boost staffing, hospital bed numbers and GP services.

“These figures show an NHS on its knees and it is no wonder that most leaders predict that this winter will be the worst on record,” said Niall Dickson, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation. “More and more patients are turning up at emergency departments and there is a limit as to how many they can cope with.”

The latest set of monthly performance figures (pdf) published by NHS England show:

• 71% of patients who attended a hospital-based A&E unit in November were seen and discharged, admitted or transferred within four hours – a record low.

• Hospitals were 95% full, far beyond the 85% that doctors consider safe, even before the surge in demand that winter always brings.

• The highest number of patients ever were forced to spend at least four hours on a hospital trolley waiting for a bed.

• Thousands of hospital beds are being lost each week due to norovirus, the winter vomiting bug.

• Flu is already putting serious strain on the NHS, sparking fears of a major outbreak this winter.

The number of people waiting for a non-urgent operation has risen to 4.45 million. The numbers of people seeking help at A&E and being admitted as an emergency case were each at record highs last month. And hospitals managed to meet only three of the eight NHS-wide targets for cancer treatment.

“What we are seeing is a health service that is on a downward spiral as this month we see yet another set of shambolic figures,” said Dr Chaand Nagpaul, the chair of the British Medical Association.

He blamed the Conservatives for creating the dire situation. “Day one of the new government and another set of stark NHS performance figures. They are not inheriting a problem, they created this problem, and the responsibility ultimately lies with them to fix it.”

In recent weeks growing numbers of hospitals have had to declare a black alert – an admission that they cannot cope – as they have been overwhelmed by the number of patients seeking care.

“We’ve seen an early spike in flu, while others have been battling norovirus cases, which are already double the levels we saw last year,” said Miriam Deakin, the director of policy and strategy at NHS Providers, which represents NHS trusts.