Commenting on today’s performance figures for the English NHS [1], Nuffield Trust Chief Economist John Appleby said:
“January saw fewer people going to major A&E departments and some signs of relief for the health service, which will be welcome for patients and staff alike. But the NHS remains miles off meeting the main targets to see people in a timely way.
“Worryingly, this winter has seen numbers of people waiting over 4 hours on trolleys for a hospital bed top 100,000 for first time ever, as we warned last year [2].
“The number of people waiting longer than four hours at A&E fell to slightly less than one in five in January. But we mustn’t forget that the target is that no more than one in twenty should wait for four hours.
“These are the first set of A&E figures covering the period since the new government entered office. Turning this troubling situation around will take rapid action, starting at the upcoming budget, to increase staff numbers and radically reform social care.”
Notes to editors
- NHS England’s Combined Performance summary covers A&E data in the English NHS for January 2020, and planned care data for December 2019. It can be seen on their website here.
- We warned last year that trends this winter were heading towards 100,000 trolley waits and one in five people waiting four hours in A&E.
- The Nuffield Trust is an independent health think tank. We aim to improve the quality of health care in the UK by providing evidence-based research and policy analysis and informing and generating debate.
- For any queries or to arrange an interview, please contact Leonora.merry@nuffieldtrust.org.uk (0207 462 0528) /Mark.dayan@nuffieldtrust.org.uk (0207 462 0538).