Government’s ‘Plan for Change’ delivers no plan and no change for Emergency Medicine

05 December 2024

The Government’s ‘Plan for Change’ has failed to deliver a plan and significant change to future-proof Emergency Medicine which is facing one of the most difficult winters yet.

That’s the response from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine after the Prime Minister, Sir Kier Starmer, delivered a speech today (5 December 2024) which laid out six key pledges for his government.

The only health-related commitment – which came in at number six, was a promise to ensure 92% of patients don’t wait longer than 18 weeks from referral to start consultant-led treatment of non-urgent health conditions.

Mr Starmer’s speech coincided with the release of new data by NHS England which revealed the healthcare system is going into winter under more pressure than ever before.

The data is the first in a series of weekly ‘situation reports’ NHSE releases during the winter months.

Today’s figures, which cover 25 November-1 December 2024, show:

• A significant increase in the number of people needing hospitalisation for flu when compared to the same period last year – with a huge 350% increase in cases, alongside an 86% increase in norovirus cases (which is also referred to as the ‘winter vomiting bug’)
• An average of 5,003 hours per day were lost each day due to handover delays, 87.2% higher than the same period last year
• Each day there were close to 12,000 patients who remained in hospital even though they were deemed medically well enough to be discharged
• An additional 11,537 beds would be required to bring bed occupancy down to reach the ‘safe’ occupancy level of 85%

Dr Adrian Boyle, President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine said: “Yet again, we have no plan, no change and no commitment to resuscitate Urgent and Emergency Care – the service which continues to be the canary in the healthcare coalmine.

“Today’s NSHE statistics should be a huge red flag and will be deeply concerning for anyone who need to seek care in an Emergency Department in the coming weeks and months, and for those who will be looking after them.

“It is clear that the annual spike in winter demand has arrived earlier this year, which may well extend the ‘crisis period’ for Emergency Departments, with the coldest months yet to come.

“While we welcome the government’s commitment to cut waiting lists for routine operations, this can’t be done in isolation. It’s all connected, you cannot fix one without fixing the other. Hospitals that are good at emergency care also tend to be good at managing electives.

“Long waits for planned procedures are clearly important however the danger lies in another kind of ‘wait’ – extreme long waits in the ED often caused by a lack of available in-patient beds. These are the ones that create the biggest patient safety risk, contributing to thousands of excess deaths every year.

“Promises to tackle elective waiting lists, and talk of 10-year plans will provide cold comfort to the tens of thousands of people forced to wait on trolleys in emergency department corridors this winter. Waits that are degrading, dangerous and de-humanising.

“Our members and their colleagues will dig in and get through what is on track to be worse than last winter – because they have no choice. But this seeming acceptance of an inevitable crisis must end now. That is what really must change.

A graphical representation of the data can be found here.