9 February 2023
Responding to the latest Emergency Department performance figures for January 2023 for the South West Region, Dr James Gagg, South West Regional Chair of The Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said:
“January continued to be extremely challenging for the NHS in the South West. Emergency Medicine staff as well as our ambulance service colleagues have continued to face severe pressures. The data once again show large numbers of patients facing extremely long waits for emergency care. This is distressing for our patients and their families, distressing for ambulance crews who aren’t able to attend calls as quickly as they would like, and distressing for Emergency Department staff who aren’t able to deliver the optimal care they are trained to provide. Current conditions are tough. Crowding remains extreme, patients are being cared for in corridors and inadequate areas where there is little to no dignity or privacy. We are still in the depths of crisis.
“The main driver of the delays in Emergency Care is exit block – this is where patients cannot be admitted to a bed on wards from the Emergency Department because there are no beds available for them, and patients on wards are unable to be discharged because there is a significant lack of social care to support the timely discharge of patients. The system throughout the hospital becomes gridlocked, like a traffic jam, everything and everyone is stuck. Patients who should be discharged spend longer than they should in hospital, and patients who should be admitted from the Emergency Department to a bed spend longer than they should in the Emergency Department. Emergency Departments become full and crowded and patients face longer and longer waits – that we know are associated with patient harm and even deaths. It is an uncomfortable and dire situation that must be addressed.
“We welcome NHS England’s urgent and emergency care delivery plan, while it contains many of the right initiatives, in the South West we do not have the staff to implement them. Moreover, existing staff are stretched to their limit and we are worried that EM doctors and nurses will leave if they are pushed to do more with less. It is vital that there is a drive to retain existing staff alongside a drive to recruit new staff in the South West.
“It is also critical that we see an expansion of capacity across Trusts in the South West, where safely possible. This would help improve flow throughout our hospitals and reduce crowding in our Emergency Departments. In tandem with this, we must see investment and resourcing of social care, so that patients can be discharged and supported on their return home or to the community. We need our local Members of Parliament and councils to recognise the pressure on emergency care services in the South West and we urge for their advocacy to retain and recruit staff, to expand capacity, and to resource social care. Our campaign Five priorities for UK Governments to #ResuscitateEmergency Care is our action plan to tackle this crisis, improve patient care and retain staff.”
Notes to editor
The latest regional monthly performance figures published by NHS England for January 2023 for the South West show:
