THE President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine has voiced his disappointment after new figures showed another decline in emergency care performance.
Dr Taj Hassan said: “Both these figures and the fact that this crisis is going unnoticed while the country is consumed by Brexit is deeply disappointing.
“These are the worst performance figures we’ve ever seen and come in the mildest winter for some time.”
His comments come as the latest statistics from Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust show its Emergency Department figures are well below the Government target of 95 per cent of patients seen, treated and admitted or discharged within four hours.
For February the Trust’s Emergency Departments saw 14,557 patients and managed just 73.5 per cent within the national target.
However other Trusts were far worse, including The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust in Harlow at 60.6 per cent and the United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust at 60.7 per cent.
University Hospitals NHS Trust Birmingham – the QE – returned a figure of 64.2 per cent.
Dr Hassan added: “With a long term plan settled and focused mainly on redirection, there a few easy fixes for our Emergency Departments.
“Staff continue to work doggedly in difficult conditions and must continue to focus on patient safety.
“We absolutely must not lose sight of the people behind these numbers; both patients experiencing undignified conditions, and staff working at the limits of their abilities.
“The NHS must focus on filling the 100,000 staff vacancies it currently has, to relieve pressure on staff and ensure those patients most in need are seen, treated and discharged as quickly as possible. More staff – and beds – in other parts of the hospital will help to unclog the system and get things moving again in the ED. We would also urge the government to make the social care green paper a priority.
“We fear that these figures will give impetus to move away from meaningful measurement of flow and system performance, which if not managed carefully runs the risk of hiding problems.
“We look forward to working with NHS England on their new standards of measuring quality to ensure that this does not happen.”
