Doctors raise alert over safety in hospital A&E units

The College of Emergency Medicine said that A&Es were facing “intolerable pressures” after a poll found that 62 per cent of emergency doctors reported their job is not sustainable in its current form.

The survey of 1,077 emergency medicine consultants also found that 94 per cent regularly worked more than their contracted hours to help maintain levels of service.

The college said that this has “potentially serious repercussions” for safe working by senior medics.

It also warned that the pressure was reducing the attractiveness of the specialty to young doctors and causing difficulty in retaining doctors – some of whom are leaving the UK to work elsewhere.

The report shows that in 2009 just two emergency consultants emigrated from the UK but in 2013 the figure had already risen to 21 by August 8.

The report said: “The results show a worrying trend. Increasing numbers of consultants who have been trained by the NHS are choosing to use their skills abroad.”

The report was published after figures showed that the number of A&E units failing to meet the Government four-hour target has almost trebled in a year.

Some 39 departments failed to meet the target of seeing 95 per cent of patients within four hours between July and September, compared with 14 units during the same period in 2012, according to NHS England data released last week.

College vice president and report author Dr Taj Hassan said: “The college is working with its members and fellows to help them do all they can in this challenging situation but we need prompt action by relevant stakeholders on the three key recommendations in this report.

“Senior medical decision makers in emergency medicine provide one of the most vital strands in maintaining safety for emergency care systems in the UK.

“A failure to address these issues will compromise this ability and also further worsen the present workforce crisis affecting emergency departments.”

Dr Andrew Goddard, of the Royal College of Physicians, said: “This survey reflects what most consultant physicians observe in their hospital’s A&E departments with an unmanageable workload and difficult working conditions that make emergency medicine unattractive to trainees. Finding ways to make consultant working in hospital medicine more attractive where such conditions exist is one of the key challenges facing the NHS at the moment and needs to be addressed as a matter of priority.”