Figures from the NHS reveal that over 5,000 people had to wait more than four hours for emergency care at A&Es in Medway NHS Foundation Trust. Shockingly, 138 people locally had to wait more than 12 hours to be admitted to accident and emergency. Just 70% of patients admitted to A&E in the area were seen within 4 hours – the NHS says that 95% of patients should be admitted, transferred, or discharged in that time.
Accident and emergency departments across the country are facing huge pressures. As the Culture Secretary, Nadine Dorries admitted a decade of Conservative mismanagement left the health service “wanting and inadequate” when the pandemic struck.
There are now also 6.73 million people on the NHS waiting list in England as of June 2022. This is the highest ever recorded. At the outbreak of the Covid pandemic, following a decade of Tory mismanagement there were 4.4 million people on the NHS waiting list in England, then a record high. Nationally, the standard of 92% of people seen within 18 weeks of a referral has not been met since 2016. Now, 1 in every 9 people in England are on the NHS waiting list.
The NHS went into the latest wave of Covid infections with the longest waiting list ever, understaffed and overstretched.
Commenting, Medway Labour and Co-operative Group’s Health Spokesperson Cllr Teresa Murray said:
“Too many people are waiting far too long for urgent care – all too often in serious pain. That’s not good enough and it has to change.The hospital staff are working hard in tough circumstances and rely on a depleted and underfunded social care system to move people out of hospital.
“Local people have a right to expect a health service that is there when they need it. Rapid accident emergency care is essential – yet the Conservatives have scrapped the zero tolerance for 12 hour waits and the results are there for all to see, yet as services get worse, taxes are going up. Under the Conservative Government working people are paying higher taxes but waiting longer. There are also not enough GPs in Medway so people feeling poorly end up at A&E because they can’t get an appointment adding to the pressure on our hospital.
“Local people deserve better; our NHS deserves better. We have insisted on a local GP task force to change things. This Government is out of ideas, trashing our health service and letting local people down.”
Wes Streeting MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, said:
“Liz Truss is living in a fantasy world where the NHS isn’t worth mentioning. The truth is the health service is facing the biggest crisis in its history, with one in every eight people waiting for care. The Conservative leadership candidates have no plans to even begin to fix this.
“Among those 6.7 million on waiting lists, there could be a huge number of undiagnosed conditions like cancer. Record waiting times have a cost in lives.
“More patients than ever before are left waiting an entire day to be seen for emergency conditions. 24 hours in A&E was just a TV programme, now it’s the reality under the Conservatives.
“The next Labour government will get patients treated on time by providing the NHS with the staff, equipment and modern technology it needs.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors:
· Source: Consultant-led Referral to Treatment Waiting Times Data 2022-23, A&E Attendances and Emergency Admissions 2022-23