Hospital A&E waits are worst in a decade

Several hospital trusts have activated their “major incident” plans to help cope with rising demand at their accident and emergency (A&E) units.

And the decline in waiting time standards is the worst A&E performance recorded since the coalition government came to power, when the hit-rate was 94.1 per cent at the start of 2013

It is also the worst record in 10 years, since the target was introduced at the end of 2004.

Major A&E departments fared worse overall, with 88.9 per cent of patients being seen within the target time.

In total, 14 hospitals are telling patients to stay away except in extreme emergency, due to demand.

Four hour targets

The four-hour time limit had to be met for 98 per cent of patients until 2010, when the coalition government moved the target down to 95 per cent.

Among the worst performers against the target were Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust (79.1 per cent), Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (80.5 per cent), Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust (83.4 per cent) and North Bristol NHS Trust (82.7 per cent).

A&E departments recorded 5.6 million patients during the three months up to Christmas.

The prime minister said the pressure is “short term” and that much of it has come from frail and elderly patients.

The emergency measure has been triggered at Cheltenham General Hospital, Gloucester Royal, Scarborough Hospital and the University Hospitals of North Midlands in Staffordshire.

The Royal Surrey County Hospital and others have urged people to keep away from A&E unless their case is a genuine emergency.

Targets matter, but not at any cost. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt

The alerts come as new figures show a marked worsening in hospital performance, with trusts missing their targets on seeing patients within a four-hour waiting time.

In the last three months of 2013, 92.6 per cent of patients were seen within four hours – below the target of 95 per cent.

‘Intolerable pressure’

Dr Clifford Mann, the president of the College of Emergency Medicine, said A&E departments are dealing with 20,000 more patients a week than the same time a year ago.

The “weekly intolerable pressure is starting to have an effect on staff”, he told the BBC.

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Staff “are more likely to become sick, they are more likely to be unable to work, and they burn out and choose to go into other professions,” he added. “This is not a sustainable situation.”

Charities have warned that the surge in demand for A&E services is being fuelled by cuts to social care.

The Conservatives would cut too much – that’s why they can’t support the NHS. Nick Clegg, Lib Dem leader

Richard Hawkes, chairman of the Care and Support Alliance, said new figures “reflect the huge pressure not just on the health service but also the ongoing squeeze in council-funded social care”.

“Chronic underfunding has left hundreds of thousands of older and disabled people, who need support to do the basics, like getting up or out of the house, cut out of the care system.”

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt conceded there is a “huge amount of pressure” on the NHS in England, and that hospital bosses feel they are “running just to keep still” to cope with rising demand.

Andy Burnham, shadow health secretary said: “These figures confirm the serious deterioration in the NHS under this Government but reveal, more worryingly, a dangerous slump in A&E performance in recent weeks.”

‘Better than any other country’

Mr Hunt said: “I think we also have to recognise, despite the particular pressures, despite the major incidents – and you always get some major incidents at this time of year – that the NHS is continuing to see in A&E departments nine out of 10 people within the four-hour target.

“That is actually better than any other country in the world that measures these things,” he told the BBC.

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“We want to do better than that, and we want to do everything we can, but what we don’t want to do… is for trusts to make compromises, as has happened in the past, on patient safety, on compassionate care, just in order to hit the targets.

“Targets matter, but not at any cost.”

Following a string of pre-election announcements from the Conservative and Labour parties, the Liberal Democrats have announced plans to “safeguard the NHS for the future”.

NHS funding would be at least £8bn higher per year in real terms by 2020 under the plans, the party said.

Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats, said balancing the nation’s books and ensuring the NHS gets what it needs is “one of the biggest debates we’re going to have between now and the general election”.

He added: “The Conservatives would cut too much – that’s why they can’t support the NHS and the Labour Party would borrow too much, that’s why they can’t”.