Patients Facing ‘Dire’ Emergency Room Waits in England’s Hospitals

More patients than ever are waiting twelve hours or more to be admitted to England’s emergency departments, as the country’s healthcare services continue to battle extreme pressures.

More than 32,700 patients spent at least twelve hours waiting for a hospital bed to open up following a decision to admit in September, official figures reveal.

This is an increase of roughly 4,000 on August’s results, and more than six times the number recorded in September last year.

Research fellow Jessica Morris from health policy think tank the Nuffield Trust said the “dire” emergency figures come “even as the number of people arriving is still lower than it once was before the covid-19 pandemic.”

She added: “A&E waiting times are the worst since records began, with three in 10 people waiting longer than four hours to be admitted, transferred or discharged.”

There are a number of factors behind the poor results, including staff shortages and a lack of flow within hospitals.

In many cases, a lack of adequate social care in the community is making it hard to discharge patients who are medically fit to leave hospital. This reduces the number of beds available for incoming patients, slowing down admissions from EDs and the transfer of patients from ambulances.

Covid-19, outbreaks of which can put care homes into lockdown, continues to put pressure on both health and social care.

Today’s monthly National Health Service statistical release also shows waiting times for cancer treatment and diagnostic tests are getting worse. Improving these results in the long term will require “turning around the long under-investment in staff, buildings and equipment,” Morris said, adding that “realistically we are still in the beginning of a very difficult time indeed.”

Another deteriorating headline figure is the country’s total waiting list for elective procedures — non-urgent specialist treatments like cataract surgery and hip replacements.

The number of people waiting for this kind of care rose by around 160,000 to seven million in August: a figure equivalent to 12.5% of the country’s population.

This total has risen every month since April 2020 as hospitals continue to battle extreme pressures, including staff absence, linked to Covid-19. Experts say many of the ingredients for these poor results were “years in the making” and have been exacerbated, rather than caused, by the pandemic.

“Today’s figures show pressure ratcheting up even more on the health service as we approach the busiest time of the year,” Morris said. “As access to receive timely care decays, some groups of patients are particularly being shut out and face months of pain or disability with little hope of treatment.”

Some specialities are particularly challenged, she added, “with only just over half of [ear, nose and throat patients] getting an appointment within 18 weeks.

“Meanwhile, over 58 thousand people have been waiting over a year for trauma and orthopaedic services.”

Hospitals are working hard to increase the number of procedures they perform to reduce their backlogs. But they continue to face a wide range challenges.

On Wednesday, the National Health Service’s Blood and Transplant authority declared its first ever “amber alert” as supplies of certain blood products fell below two day’s worth.

This may force hospitals to cancel some elective procedures, further hindering efforts to reduce waiting lists.