According to the latest figures, the number of patients waiting more than four hours for treatment in accident and emergency departments has almost doubled in the space of a year. Figures show 161,422 patients were left waiting over four hours for major A&E treatment between April and June 2011 – 91% more than during the same period in 2010. A broader measure including minor injuries units and walk-in centres was also up 90%, to 165,279.
This rise is in spite of a slight fall in the number of patients using A&E services, from 3.6 million to 3.58 million. This effectively dispels past Department of Health assertions that the longer waits were down to increased pressure on services.
Around 3% of patients (one in 33) using A&E, minor injury units and walk-in centres waited more than four hours, rising to 5.5% (one in 17) of patients in A&E only. A year ago, those figures stood at 1.5% and 2.5% respectively.
The increases follow the health secretary Andrew Lansley's abolition of the specific target for NHS waiting times. NHS Trusts had previously been mandated to ensure no patient waited more than four hours, and were set an “operational” goal of 98% of patients seen within that time. Lansley axed the wider goal and reduced the operational target to 95%.
The Department of Health refuted the claims saying insisted waiting times were stable, “These figures show that the vast majority of patients, 97%, are still being seen at A&E within four hours. We replaced the old four-hour A&E target because doctors said it was not in patients' best interest. For the first time, we are measuring the overall quality of care in A&E, as well as the time spent in A&E, which allows doctors to decide what is best for their patients. These figures confirm that, through this change, waiting times remain low and stable.”
The previous set of NHS data, released in April, showed a 63% year-on-year rise in patients waiting four hours for treatment. The quarter before was roughly the same level, with long waits up 67% on 12 months earlier. The latest figures show 91% more four-hour plus wait times than a year before.
Figures released last month showed the number of patients waiting more than 18 weeks for treatment – a target enshrined in the NHS constitution – had increased 33.5% year-on-year, with 27,834 patients waiting longer than that in May alone. This came despite a pledge from David Cameron that the 18-week target would be retained.
Figures also spoke of long waits for diagnostic treatments such as MRI scans and colonoscopies. In June, more than 12,521 people waited more than six weeks for key diagnostic tests, more than three times the 3,510 left waiting that long a year before. The number of patients waiting more than three months for diagnostic procedures rose still further, up nine-fold year-on-year, to 1,763 from 190. However, the total number of diagnosis procedures carried out was up year-on-year, hitting 1.37m in June 2011, 5% more than the same month a year before.
Data on how A&E departments are performing against eight new clinical standards introduced by Mr Lansley will be published later this month.
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