As the NHS released its August performance statistics, The King’s Fund chief executive Richard Murray has warned that the numbers are indicative of a looming crisis and the new prime minister and health secretary must act quickly to intervene.
Murray said: “Liz Truss has identified putting the NHS on a firm footing and improving access to health services as one of her top three early priorities as prime minister. But she will now be responsible for a health and care service that is being shaken to its foundations as we head into the winter months in the grip of a worsening staffing crisis.
“In August this year, nearly 29,000 emergency patients waited more than 12 hours to be admitted to hospital, a huge increase from the pre-pandemic level of just 370 in August 2019. Ambulance service response times are still alarming, with patients with serious medical conditions waiting over 40 minutes for an ambulance on average when they should be waiting no longer than 18 minutes.”
Murray also warned that if Truss’ government Is to address the issues blighting the NHS, the staffing crisis in the adult social care sector must also be alleviated to enable it to ease the burden on hospitals.
“The pressure on hospitals is symptomatic of pressure right across the health and care system. At the end of August, 13,200 people were still in hospital beds despite being medically fit to be discharged, often due to a lack of available social care support. The challenges affecting the NHS cannot be solved without addressing the systemic workforce shortages and sustained funding shortfalls in social care.
Calling on Truss and new health secretary, Therese Coffey, to consider immediate short-term action, Murray continued: “The new PM and secretary of state have a matter of weeks to decide what emergency short-term action to take to provide at least some additional support during what promises to be a terrible winter for patients and staff. This could include maximising the campaigns for winter Covid boosters and flu vaccines, tackling the pensions issue driving senior staff out of the NHS, and emergency funding to boost capacity in social care.
“Without urgent action we can expect ambulance delays to get even longer and more and more people at risk of harm in overcrowded A&E departments as the rising cost of living and winter start to bite, which could drive further spikes in demand.
“Longer term, sustainable recovery for health and care services can only come from confronting the workforce crisis that long predates the pandemic, and which successive governments have ducked.”
Photo by Nicolas J Leclercq on Unsplash
