The British Medical Association (BMA) has said the current pressure on the NHS is “intolerable and unsustainable”, with the Chair of the BMA Council stating that the Government needs to “step up and take immediate action” to solve the current crisis.
Over the festive period, more than a dozen NHS Trusts and ambulance services declared critical incidents, which many experts consider to be because of a spike in winter illnesses like flu and Covid.
According to the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM), the NHS is currently dealing with the worst winter for A&E waits on record, and that some emergency units are in a “complete state of crisis”. The President of the RCEM, Dr Adrian Boyle, also commented on Sunday that between 300 and 500 people were dying every week due to delays in emergency services. These figures seem to come from research released by the Emergency Medical Journal which shows that for every 82 patients whose hospital admission is delayed by over six hours results there is one death within 30 days.
Chair of the BMA, Professor Phil Banfield, hit out at the Prime Minister and the Health Secretary. He has called upon the Government’s choice not to negotiate with medics a “political choice” that is leading to patients dying unnecessarily. He said:
“The current situation in the NHS is intolerable and unsustainable, both for our patients and the hardworking staff desperately trying to keep up with incredibly high levels of demand. The BMA has repeatedly invited the Government to sit down and talk about the pressures on our health service, but their silence is deafening.
“It is disingenuous for the prime minister to talk about ‘backing the NHS’ in his new year message, when his own health secretary is failing to discuss how this crisis can be fixed.”
Vice-president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, Ian Higginson, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
“What we’ve been hearing over the last few days is that the current problems are all due to Covid or they’re all due to flu, or that this is complex, you mustn’t jump to conclusions – all that sort of stuff.
“If you’re at the frontline, you know that this is a longstanding problem. This isn’t a short-term thing. The sort of things we’re seeing happen every winter, and it still seems to come as a surprise to the NHS.”
A&E delay statistics
Statistics have shown that in England one in five patients waited more than an hour to be handed over to A&E teams. This is some way short of the NHS’ target which aims for 95% of ambulance handovers to be completed in 30 minutes, and 100% within an hour.
Data has also shown that in November 37,837 patients waited more than 12 hours in A&E for a decision to be admitted to a hospital department. This figure has significantly increased in comparison to the previous November, when the figure was 10,646, almost a 344% increase.
Ian Higginson commented that the figures on deaths caused by delays were more than just an educated guess. He went onto say:
“These are real figures, and I worry that we’re going to hear attempts to spin and manipulate this data and discredit it. I think if we hear that, we’ve got to say, no that is spin.”
NHS England’s Chief Strategy officer, Chris Hopson told BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme:
“We need to be very careful about jumping to conclusions about excess mortality numbers and their cause without a full and detailed look at the evidence, which is now under way.”
Adding that he feels “deeply uncomfortable” about the amount of care sometimes provided during moments of pressure. He referred to various factors that have added to the pressures on NHS services. Those being:
- An 18% increase in people going to A&E in the last six weeks in comparison to the same period last year
- A substantial increase in the number of patients with Covid in England – 9,500 compared to 4,500 a few weeks ago
- Around 3,750 patients with flu in hospital beds compared to 520 only one month ago
- Medically fit patients facing delays when being discharged. This currently stands at 12,000
- An increasing population and a drop in the standards of living
- 9,500 NHS staff are currently absent due to Covid
Chris Hopson urged those in need of medical care to “come forward” but reminded them to “use the best route” of support.
Education Minister, Robert Halfon, added:
“The Government is putting [in] a lot of funding and doing everything possible. We know, of course, that many of these problems have been caused by the pandemic and the pressures on the NHS that we’ve seen over the past few years.”
Comment
It is quite clear that there is an NHS crisis in patient health and safety and that something urgently needs to be done. The NHS has been under immense pressure for some time now and it seems as though the statistics in delays and errors by treating medical staff are increasing at an alarming rate.
There are a lot of calls for the Government to do more. However, it will take a long time before the backlog of patients improves.
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Carolle White is a Senior Associate and Legal Executive in our Medical Negligence team, which has been ranked in tier one by the independently researched publication, The Legal 500.
If you require any advice or if you have any questions regarding the subjects discussed in this article, please get in touch with Carolle or another member of the team in Derby, Leicester, or Nottingham on 0800 024 1976 or via our online form.
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