September 24th 2023.
New figures released by The Royal College of Emergency Medicine have revealed a startling statistic - almost 400,000 people in England spent 24 hours or more in an emergency department last year. This has been described as a 'matter of national shame' and is a sign of just how stretched the NHS is.
Dr Adrian Boyle, president of the College, spoke out about the situation, saying: ‘We know that long stays in emergency departments are harmful. There is good scientific data that shows that once people spend more than about six hours, and they need to be admitted into hospital, actually their mortality starts to get worse. I think it should be a matter of national shame that we have these very long waits for admitted patients.’
He added that the College is striving for an emergency care system that people feel they can be looked after safely and that the whole process of receiving emergency care should take no more than six hours, including a person being collected by an ambulance, taken to A&E, handed over to emergency department staff who organise tests and either discharge or admit the patient to the hospital.
Unfortunately, Dr Boyle said that the figures do not look to be improving anytime soon, saying: ‘Yes, we have seen 12-hour stays continue this year with little change, so it is perfectly possible that the 24-hour stays will continue.’
The NHS recovery plan sets a target of March 2024 for 76% of patients attending A&E to be admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours, with further improvements expected the following year. However, it is clear that this is a fixable problem and requires political will and commitment to sort out.
A spokesperson for NHS England said that the data is based on last year when the NHS was hit with a 'twindemic' of Covid and the flu and that there have been significant improvements since the urgent and emergency care recovery plan was published in January.
Liberal Democrat health spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP commented on the figures saying: ‘These shocking figures reveal the scale of the damage this Conservative government has done to the NHS. Long waits at A&E are leading to agonising waits for patients and unnecessary harm.’
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said that no patients should be waiting longer than necessary and that the recovery plan aims to deliver one of the fastest and longest sustained improvements in waiting times in the NHS's history.
It is clear that something needs to be done to reduce the long wait times in A&E. From the data, it is clear that this is a fixable problem and will require political will and commitment to sort out. Until then, people will continue to suffer due to the long wait times in A&E.
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