2,623 people left waiting more than 4 hours for emergency care in South Warwickshire.
Figures from the NHS reveal that 2,623 people had to wait more than four hours for emergency care at A&Es in South Warwickshire. Shockingly, just 64%% of patients admitted to A&E in the area were seen within 4 hours – the NHS says that 95% of patients should be admitted, transferred, or discharged in that time.
Accident and emergency departments across the country are facing huge pressures. As the Culture Secretary, Nadine Dorries, admitted, a decade of Conservative mismanagement left the health service “wanting and inadequate” when the pandemic struck.
There are now also 6.73 million people on the NHS waiting list in England as of June 2022. This is the highest ever recorded. At the outbreak of the Covid pandemic, following a decade of Tory mismanagement there were 4.4 million people on the NHS waiting list in England, then a record high. Nationally, the standard of 92% of people seen within 18 weeks of a referral has not been met since 2016. Now, 1 in every 9 people in England are on the NHS waiting list.
The NHS went into the latest wave of Covid infections with the longest waiting list ever, understaffed and overstretched.
Commenting, Labour’s Cat Price said:
“Too many people are waiting far too long for urgent care – all too often in serious pain. That’s not good enough and it has to change.
“Local people have a right to expect a health service that is there when they need it. Rapid accident emergency care is essential – yet the Conservatives have scrapped the zero tolerance for 12 hour waits and the results are there for all to see, yet as services get worse, taxes are going up. Under the Conservative Government Working people are paying higher taxes but waiting longer.
“Local people deserve better; our NHS deserves better. This Government is out of ideas, trashing our health service and letting local people down.”
Wes Streeting MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, said:
“Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak are living in a fantasy world where the NHS isn’t worth mentioning. The truth is the health service is facing the biggest crisis in its history, with one in every eight people waiting for care. The Conservative leadership candidates have no plans to even begin to fix this.
“Among those 6.7 million on waiting lists, there could be a huge number of undiagnosed conditions like cancer. Record waiting times have a cost in lives.
“More patients than ever before are left waiting an entire day to be seen for emergency conditions. 24 hours in A&E was just a TV programme, now it’s the reality under the Conservatives.
“The next Labour government will get patients treated on time by providing the NHS with the staff, equipment and modern technology it needs.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors:
Sources:
Statistics » Consultant-led Referral to Treatment Waiting Times Data 2022-23 (england.nhs.uk)
Statistics » A&E Attendances and Emergency Admissions 2022-23 (england.nhs.uk)