’Perfect storm of events may make this winter worse’ – SAM president

Commenting on figures released by the Royal College for Emergency Medicine today (25 September) which showed 399,908 people waited 24 hours or more in an emergency department in England in 2022/23, Dr Tim Cooksley, president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said: “This data is a further illustration of the appalling experiences and harm for patients that occurred last year in urgent and emergency care. This particularly impacts older and acute medical patients.

“Whilst this data is from last year it is highly likely to be replicated this year. There is a perfect storm of events which may make this winter even worse – a terrifying thought for staff and patients alike. 

“We are behind on the agreed winter plan. We will inevitably be back in a situation where we face calls for national major incident type plans in a few months. Clinical staff and patients remain energised to change to achieve this: government must recognise this.”