NHS and social care crisis at “pivotal moment” – SAM president

Following the release today of the latest NHS performance data, which shows record numbers of patients waiting more than 12 hours to be admitted and the lowest proportion of people being seen within four hours in emergency departments, Dr Tim Cooksley, president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said: 

“It remains essential that the number of patients waiting for prolonged periods for urgent care must not be seen as the new normal.

“Warnings have been issued for many years about the growing crisis across the NHS and in social care and the reality is that we are now at a pivotal moment.

“Patients continue to experience overcrowding in acute care settings with flow throughout the system impaired and this will have grave consequences as we move through the year.

“We are seeing worse outcomes due to the length of time patients are stuck in emergency departments and acute medical units (AMUs) and paramedics are routinely unable to transfer their patients into hospitals and get back on the road.

“As the recent rise in COVID cases combined with the heat demonstrated so evidently, there is no resilience in the system.

“Many hospital trusts are running on bed occupancy levels between 95% and 98% despite opening escalation beds – with some at 100% and hard-pressed, exhausted staff are being asked to work more hours.

“Long-term workforce and capacity plans with short-term mitigations are essential to alleviate the current crisis.

“This is required across the four nations with honest discussions about what is achievable in the short-term with current workforce constraints.”