Latest figures for the Northern Care Alliance (NCA) which provides hospital services in Oldham show that 252 ambulances waited more than 30 minutes to handover patients – it should take no more than 15 minutes – in the week beginning 2nd January.
In December 2022, 12,595 people waited more than 4 hours to be seen in Accident and Emergency (A&E) and in November, half of the people on the waiting list for routine treatment have been waiting longer than the target of 18 weeks. 73,878 people not getting the treatment they need and are entitled to.
The Kings Fund, an independent charity working to improve health and care in England said ‘‘There is no shying away from the reality that the NHS is deep in crisis, as demonstrated by unprecedented strikes and widespread, serious and sustained problems in quality of care, despite the best efforts of health care staff…
Since modern records began, A&E performance is the worst it has ever been and not a single NHS trust in the country is managing to meet the national target to be seen within four hours.’
Councillor Barbara Brownridge, Oldham Council’s Cabinet Member for Health and Social Care said
‘This is an absolute disgrace. The Tories are failing the NHS and failing the British people. This continuing poor performance in hospital care, with over 7 million patients now on the waiting list, is on top of the problems we all have getting to see a GP or find a NHS dentist. We have all seen the stories in the press about ambulances delayed or not arriving at all, late diagnosis of illness and worse outcomes for patients. I know that NHS staff are doing the best they can in really difficult circumstances, but this crisis is made in Whitehall by 13 years of Tory led Government underfunding our NHS. There simply aren’t enough staff left in hospitals and social care, putting unimaginable pressure on the workforce to meet demand.’
Responding to the latest monthly NHS performance stats, Nuffield Trust Deputy Director of Research Sarah Scobie said:
“The NHS should be on a journey to recovery, but today’s figures lay bare the reality: this is a crisis of health service resilience, years in the making and the result of poor political choices and underinvestment. December has seen a frightening mix of incoming shocks for the health service, including Covid, an early and nasty flu season and a bitter cold snap which have all fed into a greater need for emergency care services.
“Too many patients needing an ambulance in the lead-up to Christmas faced horrific waits. The time to respond to serious conditions like heart attacks and strokes was over an hour and a half on average in December, over five times the 18-minute target. There were also record levels of life-threatening incidents responded to, fuelled by the impact of cold weather and sicker patients. Despite the best efforts of ambulance staff, they still face lengthy delays to handover patients safely to hospital teams, who are themselves working at capacity.”
Councillor Brownridge added:
‘The Council is working with the NCA to get people home from hospital and help ease the crisis. But we need a longer term plan to fix social care – there are over 100,000 vacancies for care staff across England. Better training and support will help but Councils need much more money to be able to pay care homes what it actually costs to look after our older and most vulnerable people. Oldham led the way using the Adult Social Care precept to raise the pay of care staff but many social care workers can earn more working for Sainsbury’s or Lidl. There’s no point capping the amount we pay for social care if there isn’t a social care service to pay for.’
