Hospital bed waiting times show that small improvements won’t cut it

The research by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) shows the real cost of hospitals not being able to admit patients in a timely manner.

Images of patients lining up along hospital corridors, often accompanied by ambulance workers, awaiting beds to become available have become commonplace in recent years.

The NHS recovery plan set a target of March for 76 per cent of patients attending A&E to be admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours. However, data for March shows just 70.9 per cent of patients were seen within that time frame.

But the situation has deteriorated to such an extent that tinkering with targets is not going to be good enough.

As Dr Adrian Boyle, president of the RCEM, says: “Small improvements in four-hour access standard performance are not meaningful when there are so many people staying more than 12 hours.”

There is clearly a need for more hospitals. Promises have been made by the Government on building more hospitals but they have not materialised.

Just last week Doncaster MPs were left fighting for improvements to Doncaster Royal Infirmary with the Government ruling out funding for a new hospital.

However, it goes beyond just building more hospitals. With an ageing population, the crisis in social care is only going to continue to grow. A lack of care in the community has seen the issue of bed-blocking worsen. A lot of patients simply find themselves trapped with nowhere to go.

That is why The Yorkshire Post continues to back calls for reform of social care from campaigners.