NHS in summer crisis of emergency care waits, doctors say

The NHS is engulfed in a summer crisis, senior doctors have said, amid severe ambulance delays, corridors crowded with trolleys and patients facing 25-hour waits in A&E units.

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) sounded the alarm over the “national scandal” of long waits for emergency care that it said were leading to “entirely preventable” deaths at a time of the year when there should be some respite from the traditional pressure experienced over winter.

Elderly people in particular were facing the brunt of the impact, with many forced to endure horrific long waits for a bed once a decision had been taken to admit them to hospital, the college said.

A snapshot survey by the RCEM of emergency department chiefs from across the UK, conducted between Monday and Wednesday this week, exposed the extent of the summer crisis in hospitals.

Nine in 10 (91%) of 63 A&E bosses admitted NHS patients were “coming into harm” on their wards due to the quality of care that could be delivered under current conditions.

Eighty-seven per cent said they had patients being treated in corridors and 68% said they had patients waiting in ambulances outside their A&E.

One emergency department leader revealed that one of their patients this week waited more than 19 hours for a hospital bed to become available once a decision was made to admit them after they had already waited six hours to be seen. Overall, the patient ended up waiting 25 hours in A&E.

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Source: The Guardian, 20 June 2024

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