Hospital waiting times in England worsen again

Latest NHS figures show that hospital performance has sunk again, with new record worst waits in A&E and for hospital operations.

Only 81.4% of accident and emergency patients were seen within four hours in November, which is the lowest rate since the target began in 2004. A new high of 4.45 million was also hit in October on numbers waiting for treatment, such as hip and knee replacements.

Waiting times for cancer referrals also continue to be missed and it is now over three years since any of the flagship targets were achieved.

In addition to the poor performance against targets, the figures also reveal that patients needing to be admitted on to wards are experiencing increasingly long “trolley waits” because of a shortage of beds. Nearly 90,000 patients endured a wait of over four hours for a bed to be found in November, the highest on record and close to double the number from two years ago.

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Posted by Tony May, Partner/head of Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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