ONS data ‘illustrates harm caused by prolonged waits’ – SAM past president (17 January)

Commenting on analysis of the association between time spent in emergency care and 30-day post-discharge mortality published today (17 January) by the Office for National Statistics, Dr Tim Cooksley, immediate past president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said: 

“This important data from the ONS further illustrates the importance of timely acute care and the harm caused from prolonged waits – succinctly and sadly the early death of many people. This is a personal tragedy for too many families.

“It is impossible to over emphasise that this number will be rising. Those waiting for 12 hours in emergency departments are increasing. The overcrowding and impacts of this will invariably have resulted in a greater number of avoidable deaths in the last 12 months.

“The lack of dignity for patients and the appalling impact on nursing colleagues was starkly and harrowingly described in the Ryoal

college of Nursing report earlier this week.

“The situation is currently worsening and the opportunity to alter the direction of travel is increasingly narrow. If government ministers aren’t asleep at the wheel as opposition MPs have recently suggested; they need to prove it.”