Thursday 12 September 2024
The Urgent and Emergency Care system is stuck in ‘survival mode.’
This is the message from The Royal College of Emergency Medicine as new data related to hospital performance in England in August 2024 shows many are still dangerously full.
The figures released today, Thursday 12 September by NHS England, show a marginal improvement in A&E performance, with 62.5% of people being seen within the target of four hours – the highest in three years.
They also reveal last month, 8.6% of people attending major A&Es waited 12 hours or more, the highest proportion so far in 2024. This figure is 7.2% higher than the winter months of 2021.
Last month hospitals were 91.6% full, which is a reduction on levels seen earlier in the year, but some 7,670 additional beds would still be needed to reduce this occupancy level to the one considered ‘safe’ (85%.)
The release of these statistics follows the publication of Lord Darzi’s damning investigation into the performance of NHS England, which described A&E as being in “an awful state”.
Responding to the review today, Prime Minister Sir Kier Starmer referenced RCEM research showing long waits in A&E contributed to 14,000 “avoidable deaths” in 2023 and called reducing extended wait times “a matter of life and death.”
Dr Adrian Boyle, President of The Royal College of Emergency Medicine said: “Despite the data showing small improvements, as Lord Darzi’s report has highlighted the system has been working dangerously over capacity for a very long time. This has been an extremely busy summer for A&Es and long waits persist – as does the harm to the public they cause.
“The system is stuck in survival mode, with overworked and burnt-out staff working to capacity whilst stuck in a never-ending, anxious wait for the next inevitably challenging winter period where demand inevitably spikes. This is where we find ourselves now.
“We welcome the Prime Minister’s acknowledgment of the scale of the harm caused by long waits, and the improvements needed to the entire health and social care system.
“Only when the reforms so desperately needed occur will the urgent and emergency care system be able to move out of the permacrisis we currently find ourselves in.
“We look forward to the government’s budget announcement next month and learning how they intend to ‘fix’ what is broken.
“As Lord Darzi’s review has underlined, now is the time to invest in – and rebuild the NHS, so it is fit for generations to come.”
A graphical representation of the data can be found here.
