New research has revealed the “shameful reality” of the current state of NHS emergency departments, according to the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM).
A poll conducted early last week by RCEM indicated that, of 63 A&E bosses, over nine in 10 (90.5%) felt their patients were coming into harm due to the quality of care being delivered as a result of the department’s condition.
Across the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of last week, survey data suggested said that a similar amount (87%) had witnessed patients being treated in corridors, while over two-thirds (68%) had seen some waiting in ambulances outside the emergency departments they had been taken to.
The hospital heads were also given the opportunity to add free text responses, as well as answers to more direct questions. The former revealed that one had seen people wait more than 19 hours for an in-patient bed after being admitted — this meant a total waiting time of more than 25 hours in A&E.
“These responses reveal the true and shameful reality of the state of Emergency Care in the UK,” said RCEM’s president, Dr Adrian Boyle.
“Last year the deaths of more than 250 people a week were associated with long waits in Emergency Departments – that’s equivalent of airplane full of people every seven days.
“And, as shocking as that is, even more shocking is that these deaths are entirely preventable if long waits before admission were addressed and eradicated.”
In a letter to political party leaders, Dr Boyle, characterised the crisis in UK emergency departments as a “national scandal” citing the disproportionate amount of attention newly launched manifestos placed on emergency care, despite the scale of the issues present.
He began his letter: “The crisis taking place in the UK’s Emergency Departments is nothing short of a national scandal. In 2023, more than 1.5 million patients waited 12 hours or more, 65% of those were patients awaiting admission. Furthermore, almost a quarter of people waiting 12 hours (24.2%) went on to wait 24 hours or more, equating to almost 400,000 patients waiting for over a day in A&E.”
Dr Boyle and RCEM urge whoever forms the next government to adopt the principles set out in its own general election manifesto — Resuscitate Emergency Care.
These include to:
- end ambulance queues and overcrowded A&Es;
- provide the UK with enough emergency medicine staff to deliver safe and sustainable care;
- resource the NHS to ensure the emergency care system can provide equitable care to all; and
- implement transparent ways of measuring how hospitals are performing so we know which ones need to improve
Dr Boyle added: “The risk to patients’ lives is very real, it is very serious and is happening right now. People are dying, and all we have from those hoping to form the next government is a deafening silence on this issue, which really is a matter of life and death.”
Image credit: iStock
