The NHS winter crisis has continued to bite in England as A&E waiting times, ambulance response times and waiting lists continue to operate at near-record-breaking levels of stress. Only 54.7% of arrivals at major A&E departments were either admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours of arrival in December.
That’s the fourth-lowest percentage on record, and the lowest since December 2022 when just 49.6% were seen within four hours. The NHS target used to be that 95.0% of arrivals would be processed within four hours. However, that was subsequently lowered to 76.0%, but is still being routinely missed. The last time that major A&E departments saw at least 76.0% of patients within four hours was May 2021.
Figures released today show NHS waiting list is still higher than when Rishi Sunak pledged it would fall, the data shows. In January 2023, the Prime Minister made cutting the waiting list a key priority for the year, saying “NHS waiting lists will fall and people will get the care they need more quickly”.
The figures do improve slightly when considering all types of A&E such as walk-in centres. A total of 69.4% of arrivals were either admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours. The last time that the 76.0% target was met for all types of A&E was in August 2021.
Meanwhile, a total of 44,045 people were waiting for over 12 hours to be admitted once a decision to admit had been made. That’s the third-highest total on record behind only October 2023 (44,655) and December 2022 (54,573).
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AMBULANCES
People with suspected strokes or heart attacks waited an average of nearly 46 minutes for an ambulance in December. That’s compared to a target of just 18 minutes for what are classed as category two calls.
While targets are a long way from being met, the situation is better than at the same time a year earlier. In December 2022 category two calls had an average response time of one hour and 32 minutes.
Category one calls – those for the most serious life-threatening incidents – had an average response time of 10 minutes 51 seconds in December 2023. That’s compared to a target of seven minutes. Category three calls, meanwhile, had an average response time of two hours 37 minutes, and category four calls had an average of two hours 55 minutes.
WAITING LIST
The NHS waiting list fell for the second month in a row in November. A total of 7.6 million people were on the waiting list, down from 7.7 million in October. However, it was still the fifth-highest number on record.
It also means that around one out of every seven people in England are now on the waiting list.
The analysis shows there would need to be a 400,000 drop in the December 2023 data (not yet published) to return the waiting list to what it was when the pledge was made. This is four times the drop made between October and November (100,000).
December’s data is also expected to be affected by the three-day junior doctor strike which saw 86,329 appointments put on hold and needing to be rescheduled. Flu and Covid hospital admissions are also likely to have added to NHS pressures.
To date, across all strikes from Dec 2022 to Jan 2024, some 1.3m operations or appointments have had to be cancelled and rescheduled. Liberal Democrat health spokeswoman Daisy Cooper said: “Rishi Sunak promised to cut waiting lists when he made his pledge, instead he cut spending on the NHS.
“Now, one year on, millions are left waiting in pain for the treatment they need and the number has only grown over the last year. “It’s unthinkable that Conservative ministers are now planning to slash funding for the NHS further even after all the damage they have caused.
“We need a general election now to kick this out-of-touch Government out of office, fix the NHS and care and get the change the country deserves.” Downing Street said the NHS waiting list was too high but blamed striking doctors for the backlog.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “Waiting lists are still far too high, they must come down further.” But the decrease in November, a month with no strikes, was “an illustration of the progress NHS staff can make when they don’t have to contend with industrial action”, he added.
“Undoubtedly the strikes are having a significant impact on patient care, it forces those staff – the majority of staff who are not striking – to have to cover for junior doctors and that has a knock-on effect on patients. We have seen that with the number of cancelled operations. It’s unacceptable, it’s not fair to patients, it’s not fair to other NHS workers – the majority of whom are paid less than the average junior doctor.”
The Government urged junior doctors to negotiate but stressed their demand for a 35% pay restoration is “not achievable”.
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