10 April 2025
“Interesting” A&E data from last month (March 2025) indicates methods intended to improve performance are failing to significantly address the biggest and most harmful issues.
That’s the response from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) to new data released today (10 April 2025) by NHS England relating to the performances of A&E departments.
The stats cover the month of March 2025 and are interesting as it was the one month when NHSE’s incentive scheme for reducing four-hour patient waits from time of arrival was in place.
A similar scheme aimed at reducing 12-hour waits from time of arrival has been in place for the last year– and both seem to have had an effect, with a reduction of 12-hour waits in each month of this year compared to 2024, and four hour waits down last month.
The number of people attending A&Es in England rose in March to 1.45 million people. This is an increase of 179,350 people (14%) compared to the previous month and is the highest number this winter.
Responding the data, Dr Adrian Boyle, RCEM President said: “This data is really interesting and there is lots to unpick but one thing is clear – last month truly lived up to its ‘March Madness’ reputation.
“While it’s good to see progress in four and 12 hour waits, which is most likely linked to the incentives scheme, the number of people staying 12 hours is still far too high.
“In March 2019, this number was 31,769. This March, the number is 137,070. This means over four times as many people are enduring these long, undignified and dangerous stays. It feels like the effort is not being directed to the right place.
“Initiatives and messaging focused on reducing attendance and long waits for patients who complete their treatment in the Emergency Department are all very well – but they are not addressing the main issue which the ED alone cannot solve – being able to move people who need in-patient care out of our department and in a ward bed.
“It’s time for a whole system approach – not more and expensive short term ‘wins’. Surely this would be a better way to work and to allocate scarce financial resources.
“Tackling extreme long waits in ED is a fixable problem – we just need to be focusing our efforts – and our resources – in the right place.”
The data comes after the British Social Attitudes survey (BSA), published last week, found 69% of respondents were very or quite dissatisfied with the length of time it took to be seen in A&E.
Meanwhile, the most important priorities cited by respondents for the NHS included ‘improving waiting times in A&E (49%), which was considered the second most important – behind access to GPs but ahead of elective care waiting lists.
