12.01.17
NHS ‘morale and resilience’ chipped away before winter really sets in
NHS England has released its combined performance summary for November of last year, noting the continuing long-term trend of rising activity and confirming fears that the winter period would have a hefty blow on the health service.
The monthly performance statistics have revealed that A&E attendances, emergency admissions, diagnostic tests and consultant-led treatment were all higher in November compared with the same month in 2015.
A&E attendances were up by a worrying 4.5% year-on-year with emergency admissions up 3.5%, while diagnostic tests went up by 4.8% and consultant-led treatment up by 4.4%.
Professor John Appleby, chief economist and director of research at the Nuffield Trust, said that the figures showed the NHS is under “significant pressure” but warned that signs of the most serious strain are yet to come and the “big test for the NHS will come in the weeks ahead”.
“We know from previous years that it’s generally later in the winter that the health service comes under the most serious strain – much more up to date figures reported this week indicate that last week alone, 18,000 patients were waiting on trolleys for a hospital bed, almost 500 of them for longer than 12 hours,” Prof Appleby said.
“Our research has shown that a third of hospital trusts in December reported that they were either unable to deliver comprehensive care to patients or experiencing major pressures so I think the real picture now is far more serious than today’s figures for November indicate.”
The statistics found that 131 out of 139 major emergency departments failed to hit the four-hour A&E target, and that 54% more patients were stuck on trolleys for four hours compared to November 2015.
Patients facing delayed transfers of care were also the highest on record, with 6,825 patients waiting to be sent home from hospital at midnight on the last Thursday of November 2016. In all there were 193,680 ‘delayed days’ in November 2016.
Tim Gardner, senior policy fellow at the Health Foundation, said that the NHS has begun the winter “in a worse position than at any time for the past five years”, as it is squeezed between rising cost pressures and the underfunded social care system leading to delayed transfers.
“NHS nurses, doctors and managers are working extremely hard to ensure that a lack of capacity, pressure on beds and potential problems with care are identified early and averted,” Gardner said. “These pressures are chipping away at the morale and resilience of NHS staff before winter has really set in.”
Gardner concluded that the government needs to act “quickly and decisively” to fund the social care gap, stressing that this is not a problem that can be “kicked into the long grass”.
“The priority now is for local services across health and social care to be given the support and resources they need to work together to cope with growing pressures to provide efficient, effective care,” he said.
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