NHS 'on its knees' with worst ever performance on A&E and 111

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Labour said the data showed the health service “on its knees” with patients stuck on trolleys for hours in overcrowded casualty departments



The NHS has had its worst ever performance against Accident and Emergency and 111 targets, while missing swathes more standards, official figures show.

Labour said the data showed the health service “on its knees” with patients stuck on trolleys for hours in overcrowded casualty departments.

Latest statistics show the 111 phoneline left record numbers of patients waiting for a call back in February, while failing to hit its targets to directly transfer cases which were most urgent.

Performance against the key A&E target - to treat patients within four hours - was also the worst since monthly data began being published.

Just 87.8 per cent of patients were dealt with within that timeframe, compared with a target of 95 per cent.

Meanwhile ambulance services struggled badly.

Just 68 per cent of red 1 "life-threatening" calls received a response within eight minutes, when the target is 75 per cent.

Among red 2 calls – those also classed as life-threatening but not as immediately time sensitive, just 60 per cent received a response in eight minutes – the lowest on record.

Heidi Alexander MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, said: “These figures show an NHS on its knees and in crisis.

“Under David Cameron we’re heading back to the bad old days of patients waiting hours on end in overcrowded A&E departments or stuck on trolleys because no beds are available.

“The pressures in hospitals are a direct consequence of decisions this Tory Government has taken. Cuts to social care have left too many older people without the support they need to remain independent at home, and it has got harder and harder to see a GP – leaving many people with no choice but to go to A&E.”

Katherine Murphy, Chief Executive of the Patients Association said the situation had become "desperate".

She said: "We have had many calls from patients and families who have had to wait on trollies for an excessive amount of time.

“These statistics are no longer a by-product of the winter trend – they are happening all year round. They indicate a failing NHS which needs more funding, resources and frontline staff to ease the burden on stretched acute and emergency care services."

Dr Jennifer Dixon, chief executive of the Health Foundation, said “Despite a mild winter, the NHS is facing mounting pressure, contributing to deteriorating performance in a number of key measures as today’s NHS England’s figures show.

"Of particular concern is the nearly fourfold increase, compared to five years ago, in emergency patients waiting more than four hours for a hospital bed after a decision to admit them to A&E."

She said the root cause of the deteriorating performance was "an unprecedented slowdown in funding for the NHS."

“In the last three months, delays in social care provision were the fastest growing cause of people not being able to leave hospital. This contributes to a backlog of patients in A&E, and longer waiting for non-emergency care as beds are filled with patients with delayed discharges.