NHS figures reveal record numbers of A&E patients across England had to wait more than four hours for treatment last week
A sudden slump in the performance of A&E units has heightened fears that the NHS is slipping into a winter crisis and is “cracking under extreme pressure” from an increase in patients seeking care.
Labour has increased pressure on the coalition by demanding that Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, tells parliament before the Christmas recess starts next Wednesday what he intends to do about the deteriorating situation.
Official NHS figures revealed that record numbers of A&E patients across England – 35,373 – had to wait more than four hours last week for treatment. Only 87.7% were treated on time. The target set by government is 95%.
NHS leaders fear the extra £700m Hunt allocated to help the service cope this winter will not be enough to head off potentially serious failings, especially if there is severely cold weather.
The week to Sunday 7 December also saw a new all-time high of 7,760 patients forced to wait between four and 12 hours on a trolley to be admitted to a hospital bed from A&E. Waits of over four hours were up 66% on the same week in 2013, while trolley waits had doubled.
NHS leaders blamed rising number of patients turning up at A&E and more needing to be admitted as emergencies.
But Dr Mark Porter, the leader of the British Medical Association, the doctors’ union, said that the growing problems in A&E indicated that the health service as a whole could no longer cope.
“These figures point to a system cracking under extreme pressure, with patient care suffering,” he said. “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.”
Other data released by NHS England showed that patients were diverted 95 times from a very overcrowded A&E unit to another nearby in the five weeks to 7 December -compared to 48 in the equivalent period in 2013.
Similarly, ambulances were stuck outside hospitals unable to hand the patient in the back over to A&E staff for at least 30 minutes a total of 27,308 times in those five weeks, up 31% on 20,768 a year before.
The number of bed days lost to norovirus or diarrohoea and vomiting - 15,238 - was also 38% up on that period on 2013. And a total of 95,831 hospital beds were unavailable in those five weeks because patients fit to go could not safely be discharged, mainly because packages of social care support were not in place. That is 24% more than the 77,177 in 2013.
Urgent operations cancelled also went up year on year, by 17%, as was the total of planned operations postponed, at 11%.
In a letter to Hunt, Andy Burnham, the shadow health secretary, said: “I urge you and the prime minister to take swift action in the coming days. Before the House enters recess, I ask you to make a full statement at the earliest opportunity on the preparations being made by your department, NHS England and emergency preparations across government.”
The Department of Health insisted that the NHS was well prepared for winter and that the £700m was paying for extra nurses, doctors and beds, to help ease growing pressures on the system.
Dame Barbara Hakin, NHS England’s national director of commissioning operations, said that heavy demand “continues to put pressure on our hospitals but the NHS remains resilient and is pulling out all the stops” to avoid a winter crisis.
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