Waiting times for A&E and hospital operations worst on record, NHS figures show
As Christmas draws on there is very little cheer in this story, particularly as rural dwellers are often those with the least effective trusts. You will remember that the Nuffield Trust research identified that the 7 most rural acute trusts accounts for almost 25% of all the debt in the sector. This story tells us:
The NHS has seen one of its worst months on records with tens of thousands of patients waiting on trolleys for a bed as emergency departments reported unprecedented demand.
New data published on Friday showed a dire performance across a range of measures in November – before the worst of the winter has really started.
Almost 30 per cent of patients in major hospital A&E departments waited longer than four hours to be seen, a 10 per cent increase compared to the same month last year and the worst performance on record.
For the first time, not one major A&E department in England met the four-hour waiting-time target.
Across all A&E departments, 81 per cent of patients were seen within four hours, a record poor performance against the target of 95 per cent which hasn’t been met since July 2015.