By Richard Johnstone | 7 January 2015
The Department of Health has insisted that the NHS has enough funding to cope with the record levels of demand on accident and emergency services, after figures revealed waiting times have reached their highest level in a decade.
Data published by NHS England yesterday revealed that from October to December last year, 92.6% of patients attending A&E departments were seen within four hours. This falls below the 95% target for the health service, and is the worst quarterly result since the target was introduced at the end of 2004.
Responding to the figures, the DoH said the NHS faces the highest ever levels of demand, but had been given additional funding to deal with winter pressures.
The department highlighted that in the two weeks to December 28, a total of 849,800 patients attended A&E, up by nearly 70,000 compared with the previous year. Emergency admissions totaled 162,700, compared to 152,100 a year earlier.
‘We know the NHS is busier than ever before, which is why we’ve given the NHS a record £700m this winter for more doctors, nurses and beds,’ a DoH spokesman said. ‘The NHS has ensured there are plans in every area to manage the extra demand.’
Commenting on the A&E figures,Dr Sarah Pinto-Duschinsky, NHS England’s director of operations and delivery, said more than nine out of 10 A&E patients in England continue to be seen and treated in under four hours – the best measured performance of any major western country.
‘In the immediate run up to Christmas the NHS treated 446,500 A&E attendees, up 38,000 on the same week last year. And there were 112,600 emergency admissions – the highest number in a single week since we started publishing performance figures in 2010,’ she added.
However, following the publication of the figures and decisions by eight hospitals to introduce major incident provisions in response to demand, Labour called on Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt to take further action.
In a letter to Hunt, shadow health secretary Andy Burnham said: ‘I believe you should call an urgent summit, including representatives from local government, the police, fire and ambulance services, as well as emergency care and other NHS professionals, to assess the situation and put in place a coordinated plan to ensure patient safety and support the performance of A&E departments across England.’
