Friday 25 October 2024
Responding to the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) State of Care report 2023/24, Dr Ian Higginson, Vice President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said: “This report, like so many others, reinforces what RCEM has been saying, and sadly will be of no surprise to our members and patients. It shouldn’t take reports like this to state what is obvious on the ground.
“Some of the most vulnerable members of our society continue to receive the worst experience of our health service – namely children, older people, people with mental ill health; as well as people from some minority backgrounds. And if they live in deprived areas, the effect is amplified. People, in need of support, continuing to fall through the cracks.
“Many of the testimonies included in the document are as familiar as they are distressing, especially for healthcare professionals whose overriding motivation is to help those who need it, when they need it.
“The report also clearly details the issues within and outside Emergency Departments which cause and exacerbate the problems its staff and patients continue to battle – such as long waits in corridors caused by the lack of in-patient beds and difficulties discharging people who are medically well enough to leave. All of these have been repeatedly raised by RCEM. The report emphasises the need to invest in primary care, and social care, but not at the expense of ensuring that the services that should be provided by hospitals are also adequately resourced.
“Following the Darzi Review, and coming just ahead of next week’s budget, we yet again have another comprehensive and detailed assessment of the state of health care in this country.
“The Government can be under no illusion as to what needs to be done; it must now reveal how it will fix what is ‘broken’, and how it intends to fund this vital work.”
