A&E hospital waiting times are worst since NHS records began. What were the Tories saying about it?
Not one week ago, the Conservatives were attacking a Labour political broadcast for featuring actors – implying it was full of lies.
It wasn’t – this article had the details.
Now we see that matters are worse than the Labour clip stated – because the latest figures hadn’t been released when it was made.
The new figures make it absolutely clear that Conservative stewardship of the National Health Service is an utter, unmitigated disaster.
Here‘s The Independent:
Waits at A&E departments in England have hit their worst levels since records began, official NHS statistics have shown.
Despite pressures from flu and bad weather so far this winter being significantly lower than in 2018, performance against the flagship four hour target in January hit its lowest level since its introduction in 2004.
While more patients than ever are being seen at A&E departments, just 84.4 per cent were seen, admitted or sent home within four hours of arrival – well below the target of 95 per cent.
This is worse than the 84.6 per cent mark set in in March 2018 after the Beast from the East storm – the previous lowest figures on record.
While more than half a million patients were admitted to hospital from A&E last month, more than 80,000 waited over four hours for a bed to be found, and 600 patients had to wait over 12 hours.
Waits were even worse at major emergency departments, the 24-hour units in hospitals known as type one A&Es. Although the national four hour target also considers smaller minor injury units and walk-in centres, at type one units across England just 76.1 per cent of patients were seen within four hours.
There are more figures in the article. Visit it and read them for yourself.
No doubt the Tories will respond by saying they are investing £20 billion in the NHS.
This doesn’t make a dent in the fact that their NHS spending increases have been lower than any previous UK administration.
And, of course, some of that money is supposed to be coming from a mythical “Brexit dividend” – cash coming back to the UK after we leave the European Union. All the evidence suggests Brexit will cost money.
The evidence is incontrovertible: The Conservatives are bad for your health.
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I have just completed a YouGov survey about the NHS. I basically completed it by saying I fear for the future of the NHS and disabled people like me.
I had help last week to complete a wca, and am awaiting a result of my PIP review. If I could, I would move out of England until this mess is fixed.
Won’t be long now before they start telling us that the NHS is too costly and to afford improvements it must be privatised. Get rid of the Tories ASAP.
Reply to my email on this very subject:
“Dear…………………..
Thank you for contacting me NHS waiting times.
As our population ages, demand for the NHS continues to rise. I would like to commend the dedication compassion of our NHS staff, and assure you that the Government is taking clear steps to support the NHS, and ensure it offers the world’s finest healthcare.
I appreciate your concern about waiting times in the NHS. Many NHS trusts have faced difficulty in meeting their waiting time targets thanks to acute challenges this winter. The NHS sets exceptionally high waiting time standards, and the Government works with bodies like NHS Improvement to make sure they are delivered throughout the health service. The NHS mandate has set clear goals for the health service, and I am confident that they will be achieved.
Not only is the Government increasing NHS investment by over £20 billion in real terms over the coming five years, it is making progress on reforms which will reduce waiting times, and alleviate pressures on the NHS. Through the £3.6 billion investment in the Better Care Fund, and the NHS’s continuing implementation of its own plan for the future, the Five Year Forward View, I believe the proper integration of health and social care over the next three years will be of huge benefit to the NHS and patients alike. Excellent progress is being made. Compared to five years ago, nearly half a million more people are treated within 18 weeks of referral; and I am happy to say that safety in the NHS continues to improve.
Over the next five years, as part of the NHS Long Term Plan, the local NHS is being given enough money to grow the amount of planned surgery year-on-year, to cut long waits, and reduce the waiting list. The ability of patients to choose where they have their treatment remains a powerful tool for delivering improved waiting times and patient experiences of care. The NHS will continue to provide patients with a wide choice of options for quick elective care, including making use of available Independent Sector capacity. These steps come alongside measures to offer patients the choice of quick telephone or online consultations, saving time waiting and travelling.
The Long Term Plan sets out that a review of A&E waiting time standards is taking place within NHS England. The Department of Health and Social Care will consider the conclusions of the review once it’s been completed. This must be clinically led to enable best delivery of care for patients.
I believe this mandate will uphold the founding ideals of the NHS as it continues to celebrate its 70th anniversary, and provide the health service with the resources and guidance to face the challenges of today’s ongoing social, demographic and technological change.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.
Yours sincerely
Rt Hon Sir Alan Duncan MP”.
Reply to my email on this very subject:
“Dear …………
Thank you for contacting me NHS waiting times.
As our population ages, demand for the NHS continues to rise. I would like to commend the dedication compassion of our NHS staff, and assure you that the Government is taking clear steps to support the NHS, and ensure it offers the world’s finest healthcare.
I appreciate your concern about waiting times in the NHS. Many NHS trusts have faced difficulty in meeting their waiting time targets thanks to acute challenges this winter. The NHS sets exceptionally high waiting time standards, and the Government works with bodies like NHS Improvement to make sure they are delivered throughout the health service. The NHS mandate has set clear goals for the health service, and I am confident that they will be achieved.
Not only is the Government increasing NHS investment by over £20 billion in real terms over the coming five years, it is making progress on reforms which will reduce waiting times, and alleviate pressures on the NHS. Through the £3.6 billion investment in the Better Care Fund, and the NHS’s continuing implementation of its own plan for the future, the Five Year Forward View, I believe the proper integration of health and social care over the next three years will be of huge benefit to the NHS and patients alike. Excellent progress is being made. Compared to five years ago, nearly half a million more people are treated within 18 weeks of referral; and I am happy to say that safety in the NHS continues to improve.
Over the next five years, as part of the NHS Long Term Plan, the local NHS is being given enough money to grow the amount of planned surgery year-on-year, to cut long waits, and reduce the waiting list. The ability of patients to choose where they have their treatment remains a powerful tool for delivering improved waiting times and patient experiences of care. The NHS will continue to provide patients with a wide choice of options for quick elective care, including making use of available Independent Sector capacity. These steps come alongside measures to offer patients the choice of quick telephone or online consultations, saving time waiting and travelling.
The Long Term Plan sets out that a review of A&E waiting time standards is taking place within NHS England. The Department of Health and Social Care will consider the conclusions of the review once it’s been completed. This must be clinically led to enable best delivery of care for patients.
I believe this mandate will uphold the founding ideals of the NHS as it continues to celebrate its 70th anniversary, and provide the health service with the resources and guidance to face the challenges of today’s ongoing social, demographic and technological change.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.
Yours sincerely
Rt Hon Sir Alan Duncan MP”.
they cut the number of a/e’s then wonder why waiting lists increase
“A&E hospital waiting times are worst since NHS records began” I would wish to clearly point out that this headline should say English & Welsh NHS…NOT the Scottish NHS!!!
That’s unless England is dragging the rest of the service down with it. Don’t include Wales with England; they are not the same.
If you look at every single institution, working class people hold dear. Then you will have noticed a concerted effort, over the last ten years. To dismantle and wreck.
The NHS, no longer building council houses or even housing associations. Taking away benefits from the terminally ill,the sick and the disabled. Making and in most cases that i have seen claiming benefits impossible at best. For the low paid and those people who are agency workers and those coming off of zero hour contracts. And actually fraudulently stopping claims of new claimants. I know men who have worked a for thirty solid and then fall out of work. Then put in claims. Only to be told ten or twelve weeks into a claim, without a penny being paid. That they have missed a bogus appointment and have to start fresh claims. Three seperate people from three differant cities in the uk all saying the same thing. I find that disturbing. Then there are the police cuts, a lack of nurses. Yet they take away the bursary,that allows mature people to retrain and better there wages. A lack of doctors and consultants. The list goes on and on. But it seems to me. That They are treating the working classes as economically unviable. As your replacement is already on the way from the EU. My neighbour had to travel 1652 miles from latvia to the back end of beyond. Just to put food on his kids plate back home. He suffers a hostile attitude from the locals. As they see him as stealing there resources. There is something fundamentally wrong with the EU. It is killing the working classes of europe wholesale. And its a double whammy with these murderous tories in power.
Are you saying you’re delighted that we’re leaving the EU and immigrant workers won’t be able to come here? Or do you think they’ll still come?