NHS ‘overwhelmed’ during collapse in waiting time standards in February
From Daily Mirror: The NHS has admitted being been “overwhelmed” during an unprecedented collapse in waiting time standards in February.
Category: #ToryWaitingTimes
#ToryWaitingTimes
Crucial hospital waiting time targets could be scrapped after years of failure, Theresa May and the head of the NHS both hint
From the Daily Mirror: Crucial hospital waiting time targets could be scrapped after years of failure, Theresa May and the head of the NHS both hinted today.
‘Worst ever’ July A&E performance shows collapse in NHS standards under Theresa May
From Morning Star: Latest figures on A&E waiting times reveal the “astonishing” collapse in NHS standards under Theresa May, Labour said today.
Monthly statistics for July 2018 published by #NHS England show that just 89.3 per cent of people attending A&E were seen within four hours, well below the 95 per cent target.
That dismal performance means NHS England has consistently failed to meet the 95 per cent four-hour target — lowered from 98 per cent by the coalition government — since July 2015.
The number of people attending A&E in July 2018 also hit a record 2.176 million people in July 2018, the highest figure since records began in 2010.
NHS operation waiting lists reach 10-year high at 4.3m patients
From The Guardian: The number of patients waiting for an operation on the NHS has reached 4.3 million, the highest total for 10 years, official figures show.
Growing numbers are having to wait more than the supposed maximum of 18 weeks for planned non-urgent surgery such as a cataract removal or hip or knee replacement.
In May, for example, 211,434 patients had been on the waiting list for more than six months, up from the 197,067 who were in that position a month before and up by almost half compared to a year earlier, the NHS England data shows.
Cancer patient waited 541 days for NHS treatment, report says
From The Guardian: The longest waits for cancer treatment in England have soared since 2010, with one patient waiting 541 days, analysis suggests.
Two-thirds of NHS trusts reported having at least one cancer patient waiting more than six months last year, while almost seven in 10 (69%) trusts said they had a worse longest wait than in 2010. This was reflected in the average longest wait rising to 213 days – 16 days longer than in the year the Conservatives entered government.
The official target requires at least 85% of cancer patients to have their first treatment within 62 days of referral by their GP, but this has not been met for 27 months in a row.
More than 100,000 people have waited more than two months for treatment to start since the target was first missed in January 2014.
NHS England suffers worst A&E waiting times on record
From Sky News: A&E performance fell to the lowest level on record in March as the NHS continues to face unprecedented pressure. Just 84.6% of accident and emergency patients in England were seen within four hours last month, dropping from 85% in February and compared to 90% in March 2017. And the number of people suffering waits of more than 12 hours more than tripled, compared to the same month the year before. Medics said the backlog created by the situation would leave some hospitals struggling to catch up. President of the Society for Acute Medicine Nick Scriven called the figures the “clearest indication yet of the eternal winter we now face in the NHS” and urged a turning point in planning.
Child forced to queue for six days for bed in NHS’s longest “trolley wait”
From Daily Mirror: A child in Derby was forced to wait over 145 hours for a mental health bed in hospital in the longest recorded “trolley wait”. Figures show A&E delays at the worst levels in the history of the NHS.
NHS brings in three month minimum waiting times despite warnings patients will suffer
From Daily Telegraph: NHS officials have introduced new limits which mean patients in some parts of the country will be made to wait at least three months for routine surgery, such as hip operations and cardiac procedures.
NHS winter crisis: Ambulance diverts at their highest
From Sky News: The NHS continues to face severe pressure this winter, with high levels of ambulance diverts, patient handover delays and bed occupancy, the latest figures from NHS England reveal. Last week saw A&E departments send emergency patients elsewhere because they were too busy on 43 occasions, the highest number for a single week this winter. The figure was more than double the previous week and higher than the comparable week last year. Ambulance handover delays were also high, with 11,061 – around one in nine – waiting more than the target 30 minutes in the week to Sunday 28 January. Of these, 2,143 ambulances waited more than an hour to pass on their patient and get back on the road. And bed occupancy rose marginally, up to 95.1%, well ahead of both the recommended safe level of 85% and the predicted level of 92%.
Transgender people face two-year wait for NHS appointment
From BBC News: Transgender people are waiting up to two and a half years for initial consultations at NHS gender identity clinics. This is despite an NHS England pledge in 2016 to bring waiting times to below 18 weeks by 2018. The average wait from receiving a GP referral to getting a first appointment is 18 months.
Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust Gender Clinic said its current waiting time for an initial appointment is two and a half years. It added “demand outstrips supply” and it wants to “ensure that the first clinician the patient sees will be one that can complete a diagnostic assessment to start the treatment pathway”.
NHS crisis: Patients are ‘dying prematurely’ in corridors, A&E bosses warn Theresa May
From The Independent: Patients being treated in NHS hospital corridors are ‘dying prematurely’ according to a letter from 68 senior A&E doctors warning Theresa May of “very serious concerns” about patient safety.
NHS chiefs warn Tory underfunding will force them to miss waiting time targets next year
From Daily Mirror: Hospitals will be forced to tear up waiting time targets next year thanks to Tory underfunding, NHS chiefs have warned.
Children waiting up to 18 months for mental health treatment
From The Guardian: Children with mental health problems are waiting up to 18 months to be treated, according to a government-ordered report, in an indictment of the poor care many receive.
A Care Quality Commission report into child and adolescent mental health services (Camhs) will warn that long delays for treatment are damaging the health of young people with anxiety, depression and other conditions.
Long delays are leading to some children starting to self-harm or fall out of education, couples breaking up and parents having to stop working so they can look after their child, the charity Young Minds said. Statistics show that one in five children referred for treatment in England cannot be seen by overstretched child and adolescent mental health services, and some families end up seeking private care.
“We regularly hear from parents who can’t get a referral, with their GP telling them to seek a referral via their school and vice versa. We also hear from parents who have been waiting for months for an initial assessment, and whose children’s conditions have got worse during that time,” said Jo Hardy, the head of parent services at Young Minds.
Revealed: Damning Tory catalogue of child health failures and cancelled NHS children’s operations
From The London Economic: The Labour Party are set to reveal that over 12,000 surgical procedures on children and young people were cancelled in the previous year alone.
This represents an increase of 35 per cent in three years. These cancelled NHS operations include procedures for broken bones and treatments under anaesthetic.
One in five paediatric trainee positions are currently vacant even though trainees themselves report high levels of enthusiasm for the speciality.