The number of people waiting for more than 12 hours in emergency rooms in England has surpassed 50,000 for the first time, underlining the extraordinary strain on hospitals.
New data from NHS England shows that the full impact of the Covid twindemic and flu has become known, with a record 2.29 million patients going to the emergency room in December.
Approximately 54,532 people waited more than 12 hours to be admitted to hospital in December, up 44.1% from 37,837 in November and the highest number since August 2010. a new record of 170,283 in December, up 18.3% from 143,949 the previous month.
For category 2 emergency calls, including heart attack and stroke, the average response time was 93 minutes, more than double the previous month’s 43 minutes and five times the official target of 18 minutes.
The number of medically healthy patients at the hospital also reached a record high of more than 14,000 in the week ending January 8, according to separate data.
The problem means that hospitals are actually trying to operate at 66 percent capacity, leaving many of them struggling to cope with the surge in patients this winter. This week the government announced another £250m to buy beds from the private sector to try to reduce the number of so-called ‘bed blockers’ in hospitals.
The average response time from ambulances to calls in England last month was the longest on record, according to the NHS. The average response time for category 1 life-threatening calls was almost 11 minutes, far exceeding the target of 7 minutes.
Meanwhile, the average response time for Category 2 calls, which include heart attacks and strokes, has reached a whopping 1 hour and 33 minutes, more than 50 percent faster than the previous record. This is five times the target for category 2 calls of 18 minutes.
Overall, 65.0% of patients in England were seen in emergency departments within four hours last month, up from 68.9% in November and the worst on record. The operating standard, which requires at least 95 percent of patients in the emergency department to be admitted, transferred, or discharged within four hours, has not been met nationwide since 2015.
NHS England estimates that around 1,423 people in England have waited more than two years to start their usual hospital treatment at the end of November. This is slightly lower than the 1,907 observed at the end of October and well below the January 2022 peak of 23,778.
The Government and the NHS are aiming to eliminate all waiting periods of two years by July 2022, except for patient decisions or complex cases requiring specialized treatment.
NHS England estimated that as of the end of November, 406,575 people in England had been waiting for more than 52 weeks of hospital treatment. This is up from 410,983 at the end of October and the first monthly decline since last February. The government and the NHS have set a goal of eliminating all waiting periods of more than a year by March 2025.
New data shows the NHS waiting list for non-emergency care has shrunk for the first time since the start of the pandemic, while hospitals have seen their highest number of emergency room visits in the last month. More than 70,000 patients received scheduled care in November than in the same month before the pandemic, as the waiting list dropped by almost 30,000 to 7.19 million compared to the previous month.
Professor Sir Stephen Powys, National Medical Director for NHS England, said the numbers show how hard staff have been working under “extreme pressure”.
He added: “As staff responded to record ER visits, 999 calls and 911 ER calls as the ‘tweendemic’ resulted in an unprecedented level of respiratory illness at the hospital, they continued to bring more people to patients than ever before, received diagnostic tests . and cancer treatment.
“These numbers show how hard our employees are working not only under extreme pressure, but also to clean up Covid residues and test more people for cancer in a month than ever before.
“The NHS will keep a foot on the accelerator to continue widening the Covid backlog and hospitals have been asked today to ensure that anyone waiting over 18 months is treated by March. As services remain under pressure, it’s important that the public continue to do their part by using the best services to care for them – using 999 for emergencies, online 111 for others, and getting vaccinated when they qualify.”
Health spokesman and Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: “Thousands of additional deaths, millions on waiting lists and hours until an ambulance arrives, this is a government-building horror show. People will be horrified if they or their loved ones get sick.
“Our NHS is not just at its breaking point, it is bursting at the seams. The Liberal Democrats are demanding that the government release promised money to support the discharge of patients from hospitals over the next seven days.”
Shiva Anandachiva, Senior Analyst at The King’s Fund, said: “We cannot hide from the reality that despite all efforts, the NHS is mired in a deep crisis, such as unprecedented strikes and widespread, severe and persistent quality of service problems. show of medical workers.
“Ultimately, short-term solutions do not solve long-term problems. The timeline for the upcoming staffing plan would be a good starting point to show the government’s long-term thinking. As we saw in the early 2000s, when services have a clear focus and the right level of investment and staff, waiting times can be reduced. Without these conditions, sustained pressure throughout the system is unlikely to decrease.”
To reduce the number of beds blocked by discharged patients with nowhere to go, the government this week announced an additional £250m to buy beds from the private sector to try to reduce the number of so-called ‘bed blockers’. ‘ in the hospital.
Source: I News
I’m Raymond Molina, a professional writer and journalist with over 5 years of experience in the media industry. I currently work for 24 News Reporters, where I write for the health section of their news website. In my role, I am responsible for researching and writing stories on current health trends and issues. My articles are often seen as thought-provoking pieces that provide valuable insight into the state of society’s wellbeing.