NHS A&E Waiting Time Crisis

Figures from the NHS reveal that 8,715 people had to wait more than four hours for emergency care at A&Es in Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Just 67% of patients admitted to A&E in the are were seen within 4 hours – the NHS says that 95% of patients should be admitted, transferred, or discharged in that time.

Accident and emergency departments across the country are facing huge pressures. As the Culture Secretary, Nadine Dorries, admitted, a decade of Conservative mismanagement left the health service “wanting and inadequate” when the pandemic struck.

There are now also 6.73 million people on the NHS waiting list in England as of June 2022. This is the highest ever recorded. At the outbreak of the Covid pandemic, following a decade of Tory mismanagement there were 4.4 million people on the NHS waiting list in England, then a record high. Nationally, the standard of 92% of people seen within 18 weeks of a referral has not been met since 2016. Now, 1 in every 9 people in England are on the NHS waiting list.

The NHS went into the latest wave of Covid infections with the longest waiting list ever, understaffed and overstretched.

Peter Dowd MP said:

“It is very concerning that patients in need of emergency medical attention are forced to wait far too long to be seen, left for hours often in serious pain.

These long delays are sadly putting people off going to A&E who need medical attention. Unacceptable waits will mean people in Bootle could fall through the cracks.

The Conservative Government’s response to the crisis in A&E is to scrap the zero tolerance for 12 hour waits. The Tories have neglected our NHS for too long.

The NHS is crying out for a change in government to ensure that this crisis does not continue.”