BECKHAM
12-05-2013, 12:27 PM
The number of ambulances waiting outside accident and emergency departments for more than half an hour has gone up by 58% under the coalition, figures reveal, providing further evidence of a crisis in the NHS.
Nearly 99,000 ambulances were delayed for 30 minutes last year – 37,000 more than in 2010-11. The College of Emergency Medicine (CEM) has said it is unsafe to leave patients in ambulances for more than 15 minutes. The figures will increase concern about the state of the country's A&E departments, said by senior doctors in recent days to be like "war zones". Last week Dr Cliff Mann, a registrar at CEM, which represents A&E doctors, said the emergency care system had reached "a tipping point", with many A&E units overwhelmed by the numbers of patients arriving.
On Wednesday NHS England, the central body responsible for quality of health services, issued emergency plans instructing hospitals and GPs to take urgent action to tackle problems. It followed warnings from David Prior, new chairman of the health and social care watchdog the Care Quality Commission, that emergency care is now "out of control" across swaths of the country.
The causes of the problems in A&E departments are thought to be varied although health secretary Jeremy Hunt has claimed the refusal of GPs to do out of hours work was partly responsible for a rise in numbers attending hospital.
Hunt denies that there is a crisis, claiming that 90% of patients are seen within four hours when they attend emergency wards, with the average total waiting time at 53 minutes. However, he admitted last month the service was under pressure as two million more people were going through emergency wards every year compared with before the coalition came to power.
The figures revealed on Sunday were obtained from Department of Health winter situation reports, the only audit of ambulance queueing times collected by the NHS across England.
They show that North Middlesex University Hospital Trust saw a 1,700% increase on the number of ambulances queuing for more than half an hour, from just 10 three years ago to 180 in the winter of 2012-13.
In Croydon no ambulances queued for over 30 minutes in the winter of 2010-11 but 655 did so in 2012-13.
Lewisham Healthcare NHS Trust endured a 233% increase, where 68 ambulances queued for more than half an hour in the winter of 2010-11 compared with 227 last winter.
The statistics will add to the perception of a system struggling to cope. There have been reports of dozens of seriously ill patients being left on trolleys for more than 12 hours. Senior nurses say patients have had to sleep in cupboards andcorridors while doctors have had to perform "safari rounds" of wards each morning to find those lost amid the chaos.
Gareth Thomas, the Labour MP who obtained the figures, said: "With staffing shortages across the NHS having left A&E departments overstretched and with waiting times inside A&Es increasing, David Cameron needs to explain why he prioritised a £2bn top-down reorganisation and privatisation of the NHS over improving patient care and how his plans to close A&Es won't exacerbate this already serious problem."
Christina McAnea, head of health at the union Unison, said the failure of NHS funding to match increased costs due to an ageing population was a major cause of understaffing. Shewarned that changes to the NHS Direct service, which is being abolished to make way for the new 111 phone service, would only make the situation worse as undertrained staff resort to sending more people to A&E wards.
McAnea said: "The public is being misled into thinking the 111 service is a mirror image of the old NHS Direct – it is not. It does not employ the same level of trained nursing support and is a checklist service that has already had some devastating consequences. This is adding to pressure on staff in already busy A&Es."
Nearly 99,000 ambulances were delayed for 30 minutes last year – 37,000 more than in 2010-11. The College of Emergency Medicine (CEM) has said it is unsafe to leave patients in ambulances for more than 15 minutes. The figures will increase concern about the state of the country's A&E departments, said by senior doctors in recent days to be like "war zones". Last week Dr Cliff Mann, a registrar at CEM, which represents A&E doctors, said the emergency care system had reached "a tipping point", with many A&E units overwhelmed by the numbers of patients arriving.
On Wednesday NHS England, the central body responsible for quality of health services, issued emergency plans instructing hospitals and GPs to take urgent action to tackle problems. It followed warnings from David Prior, new chairman of the health and social care watchdog the Care Quality Commission, that emergency care is now "out of control" across swaths of the country.
The causes of the problems in A&E departments are thought to be varied although health secretary Jeremy Hunt has claimed the refusal of GPs to do out of hours work was partly responsible for a rise in numbers attending hospital.
Hunt denies that there is a crisis, claiming that 90% of patients are seen within four hours when they attend emergency wards, with the average total waiting time at 53 minutes. However, he admitted last month the service was under pressure as two million more people were going through emergency wards every year compared with before the coalition came to power.
The figures revealed on Sunday were obtained from Department of Health winter situation reports, the only audit of ambulance queueing times collected by the NHS across England.
They show that North Middlesex University Hospital Trust saw a 1,700% increase on the number of ambulances queuing for more than half an hour, from just 10 three years ago to 180 in the winter of 2012-13.
In Croydon no ambulances queued for over 30 minutes in the winter of 2010-11 but 655 did so in 2012-13.
Lewisham Healthcare NHS Trust endured a 233% increase, where 68 ambulances queued for more than half an hour in the winter of 2010-11 compared with 227 last winter.
The statistics will add to the perception of a system struggling to cope. There have been reports of dozens of seriously ill patients being left on trolleys for more than 12 hours. Senior nurses say patients have had to sleep in cupboards andcorridors while doctors have had to perform "safari rounds" of wards each morning to find those lost amid the chaos.
Gareth Thomas, the Labour MP who obtained the figures, said: "With staffing shortages across the NHS having left A&E departments overstretched and with waiting times inside A&Es increasing, David Cameron needs to explain why he prioritised a £2bn top-down reorganisation and privatisation of the NHS over improving patient care and how his plans to close A&Es won't exacerbate this already serious problem."
Christina McAnea, head of health at the union Unison, said the failure of NHS funding to match increased costs due to an ageing population was a major cause of understaffing. Shewarned that changes to the NHS Direct service, which is being abolished to make way for the new 111 phone service, would only make the situation worse as undertrained staff resort to sending more people to A&E wards.
McAnea said: "The public is being misled into thinking the 111 service is a mirror image of the old NHS Direct – it is not. It does not employ the same level of trained nursing support and is a checklist service that has already had some devastating consequences. This is adding to pressure on staff in already busy A&Es."