Dozens of hospitals are failing to declare critical incidents despite having out-of-control waiting times at A&E.
New figures handed to The Independent have revealed that more than half of NHS trusts have longer A&E waiting times than those which have already been forced to take emergency measures to deal with overwhelming demand. More than a dozen hospitals announced incidents at the start of January, but the health secretary later revealed the true figure was 24.
The Lib Dems accused the government of a “lack of urgency” to deal with the crisis hitting the NHS this winter and warned patients were being left “in the dark” on what is happening with their local services.
The figures show that at trusts which have announced a critical incident – where pressure on services is so high health services are at full capacity and need to prioritise urgent care – nearly one in six, or 15.4 per cent, of patients had to wait 12 hours or longer.
But many trusts that have not publicly declared a critical incident have even worse waits, according to data from the House of Commons library, commissioned by the Liberal Democrats.
At Blackpool Teaching Hospitals and Countess of Chester Hospital Trusts, 27.5 per cent and 26.6 per cent of waits took 12 hours or longer last month.
In total, 69 trusts (57 per cent of all trusts) which have not declared a “critical incident” had a higher proportion of 12-hour waits than the Somerset Foundation Trust, which did announce it was taking emergency measures.
The Royal College of Emergency Medicine estimates that in 2023 almost 14,000 deaths were associated with long waits in A&E.
The Lib Dems said the situation across the country was “harrowing” and the government had “sat on its hands as this ongoing catastrophe unfolded”.
Lib Dem health and social care spokesperson Helen Morgan called on the health secretary to introduce mandatory public reporting of critical incidents.
She said: “The stories that we have heard in our A&Es this winter have been utterly harrowing. Patients dying in glorified cupboards, many having to fend for themselves on trolleys in corridors and staff stretched to breaking point.
“It is shocking that the new government has sat on its hands as this ongoing catastrophe has unfolded. The Conservative Party’s legacy of NHS neglect was beyond shameful but the lack of urgency ministers have shown in tackling this has been staggering.
“We now need to see the government get its act together and announce an emergency plan to protect patients as this crisis persists. That plan must include bringing bed occupancy back to safe levels and to bring forward a pandemic-style emergency recruitment campaign to bring staff out of retirement and back into the workforce.
“It is also an insult to patients and their loved ones to leave them in the dark about the state of their local health services. That is why we must now see mandatory public reporting of critical incidents as soon as they occur.”
Director of policy and strategy at NHS Providers, Isabel Lawicka, said: “No trust leader wants patients to wait a moment longer than needed for care in A&E or any other part of the Health Service. Safety of patients is always the top priority.
“The number of people in hospital with norovirus, flu and other nasty winter bugs has taken its toll on the NHS this winter.
“This massive demand has led to a number of critical incidents being declared not just in hospitals but in some ambulance services too.
“The decision to declare a ‘critical incident’, which can help trusts access support from other health and care partners, is never taken lightly and is a sign of just how much pressure trusts are under.
“NHS staff and trust leaders are doing everything possible to see patients as quickly as they can but extreme demand right across the NHS means that A&Es, wards and beds continue to come under relentless pressure.”
Dr Jamie O’Halloran, senior research fellow at think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), said: “Long waits for care have tragically become the ‘new normal’. While the NHS is working tirelessly to deliver safe care in the short term, addressing its deep-rooted challenges will require time and bold, decisive action.
“A decade of poor decision-making has left the Health Service facing immense pressures. The government’s 10-Year Plan holds promise for addressing these issues, but only time will tell if it delivers the transformative change that is urgently needed.”
Dr Simon Walsh, deputy chair of the BMA’s consultants committee, said: “The state of emergency care in this country is distressing for both doctors and patients.
“Every doctor who has worked in the emergency system will have a story of burnt-out staff, overcrowded waiting rooms, patients being treated in corridors, queues of ambulances outside emergency departments, and what we used to call the ‘winter’ crisis, which is now all-year round.
“Years of neglect by a government that was more interested in fighting doctors than working with them has left the healthcare system in a place that simply can’t guarantee patients will receive the care that they need, when they need it.
“This report highlights the dire state of our emergency-care services and the risk to patients if left unchecked. Emergencies don’t discriminate; fix emergency care and everyone benefits.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We have taken action to protect A&E departments this winter, introducing the new RSV vaccine, delivering more flu vaccines than last year, and ending the strikes so staff are on the frontline not the picket line for the first winter in three years. But we inherited a broken NHS and it will take time to fix.
“We are working to break out of this cycle of annual winter crises. By this spring, we will set out the lessons learned from this winter and the improvements that we will put in place ahead of next winter.”
