Voters face a choice over NHS after figures show A&E waiting time targets missed for full year
At next year's election, local MP Alison Seabeck believes the British people face a choice on the NHS. A choice between the Tories who have taken the NHS backwards, and Labour who will protect it.
New figures released last month by NHS England confirm that the Government’s A&E waiting time target was missed for 52 consecutive weeks.
As many as one in five patients in some parts of the country waited longer than the four-hour target as hospitals struggle with a summer A&E crisis.
Record numbers of patients are turning to hospital A&Es for support this summer. Older people who have lost social care or patients who struggle for GP appointments under David Cameron now come through the doors of A&E departments.
A report into one A&E department, released by the Care Quality Commission following an inspection in May, demanded improvements after finding the department “frequently short staffed” despite a £1 million agency nurse overspend. It found patients arriving by ambulance forced to wait for an hour on corridor trolleys; over 300 patients caught in queues of ambulances for more than an hour outside the hospital; patients waiting two hours longer than declared, leaving the hospital accused of “distorted” waiting times; and an overflow ward for A&E, intended for exceptional use, had not closed in the last year due to unprecedented patient numbers.
Alison Seabeck, MP for Plymouth Moor View, said: “Hospitals are under enormous pressure. This was evident not just from my recent visit to Derriford, but also from their own data and constituents who have raised concerns. The staff are working flat out in every department but elective surgery dates are now being cancelled. The NHS needs our support not more privatisation.”
Andy Burnham MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, said: “This sustained slump in A&E simply cannot be ignored by David Cameron any longer. The NHS is heading towards the rocks and we urgently need some honesty from the Prime Minister about how he plans to turn it around.
“The crisis in A&E is a problem of this Government’s making. It has got harder for people to get a GP appointment while social care has been cut to the bone. The result is record numbers coming through A&E and thousands of older people trapped in hospital. The pressure is backing up through A&E, ambulance response times are getting worse and waiting lists at a six-year high.”
