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October 13, 2024
Up to 100 patients a day are being forced to wait more than an hour in ambulances outside overstretched A&E units.
More than 37,000 people needing urgent treatment were held in so-called ambulance ‘jams’ last year – with delays of up to four hours recorded at some hospitals.
The latest number is more than double the 14,580 who waited to be admitted in 2010-11, despite official guidelines that say patients should be handed over to medical staff within 15 minutes of arrival.
Even the number of those stuck in ambulances for 30 minutes have increased – from 99,661 three years ago to 193,088 last year.
The delays in treatment come as many A&E departments are struggling to cope with a surge in patient numbers.
Chaos in out-of-hours care and the botched launch of the Government’s 111 non-emergency number have also been accused of pushing many hospitals to breaking point.
Earlier this year, staff at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital’s emergency unit were so stretched they erected a tent in a car park to act as a makeshift ward.
And in a leaked letter last week, 20 senior A&E doctors warned they could no longer guarantee safe care for patients.
Jamie Reed, Labour’s health spokesman, said hospitals had reached ‘crisis point’.
The collapse of social care, which means older people cannot be discharged back home, the failure of the new 111 helpline service, more than 4,000 nurses cut since the General Election and walk-in centre closures are all piling pressure onto A&E departments,’ he said.
‘The result is patients waiting longer for treatment, being left on trolleys and unable to be transferred to wards because the beds are occupied.
‘David Cameron is taking the NHS backwards, with ambulances queuing outside A&E and one hospital even having to erect a tent to receive patients.’
Last week, NHS Confederation boss Mike Farrar also said emergency care was in a ‘state of crisis’ and called for patients to be able to email their GP instead of going to see them.
However, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has blamed the problem on GPs giving up responsibility for out-of-hours care and allowing care to be provided by unreliable private firms.
The number of patients who waited longer than four hours in A&E has almost tripled in four years, from 344,772 in 2009-10 to 888,289 last year, NHS figures reveal.
Casualty units have been told to treat 95 per cent of patients within four hours, but almost a third of trusts failed to meet the target.
An NHS England spokesman said: ‘While more than 90 per cent of A&E patients are seen within this time, waiting an average of 53 minutes, a high number of patients are still waiting longer than we would want.
‘There is no single cause or factor that can explain longer waits in A&E departments and issues vary from hospital to hospital.’
A Department of Health spokesman said the NHS is ‘coping well’ after the number of casualty patients rose by a million in three years.
‘Patients shouldn’t face excessive waits for treatment and we expect NHS England to take action to address ambulance handover times, including fining trusts when there are delays of 30 minutes or more,’ he said.
Source Mail Online