NHS figures show that 6.2 million people are waiting to start treatment, the highest number since records began in August 2007. Of these, 23,281 have been waiting for more than two years. NHS England said that dropped from 23,778 at the end of January, but it is about nine times the 2,608 people who had waited so long in April 2021. Ministers promised to eliminate all expectations of more than two years by July. However, doctors, NHS leaders and health experts say the goal seems increasingly unattainable. On Wednesday, the Guardian revealed that operations were being canceled across the UK as Covid caused a stir in the NHS. The NHS is under severe pressure due to an unprecedented combination of urgent and urgent demand, tens of thousands of Covid-related staff absences, large numbers of Covid hospital staff and patient delays as well as Covid and staffing gaps. affect social care services. Thursday’s figures show the extent of the crisis. The percentage of people who waited more than four hours in A&E departments rose to its highest level ever in March. Just over 28% of people waited at least four hours in all A&Es, while in type 1 A&Es – those in large hospitals – the rate was 41%. There were more than 2.1 million A&E holdings in March, up 28.5% in March 2021. A record 22,506 people waited more than 12 hours at A&E in March from the decision to admit that they were actually accepted. This was an increase from 16,404 in February and is the highest for any calendar month in archives dating back to August 2010. “Today’s data underscores the extreme pressure on patients and NHS staff, with millions of people feeling the effects of a health system struggling with unbearable stress,” said Hugh Alderwick, policy director at the Health Foundation. Danielle Jefferies, an analyst at King’s Fund Health thinktank, said that despite the government’s recent focus on dealing with outstanding issues, the data showed that “pressures are now reaching unacceptable levels in all parts of the health and care system”. The average response time last month for ambulances in England dealing with the most emergencies – calls from people with life-threatening illnesses or injuries – was nine minutes and 35 seconds. This was higher than eight minutes and 51 seconds in February and is the highest average since the current records began in August 2017. Ambulances in England took an average of one hour, one minute and three seconds last month to respond to emergency calls such as burns, epilepsy and strokes. This increased from 42 minutes and seven seconds in February and is the longest recorded time for this category of messages. Dr Tim Cooksley, president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said it was “deeply worrying” that “the inability to even reach the performance targets is now expected” every month. “There is no chance of recovery of selective care until the systemic problems plaguing emergency and urgent care are resolved effectively and in the long run,” he said. Professor Stephen Powis, NHS’s National Medical Director for England, said: “No one should be deluded about how hard NHS staff work on their hands, balancing competing priorities and maintaining high quality patient care.” Despite the pressure on multiple fronts, longer patient expectations were falling, he added, and staff were working hard to adopt innovative approaches to help patients receive treatment faster.
