Each winter, the NHS faces its toughest challenge of the year. Hospitals throughout the country see a dramatic influx of patients during the colder months, and without preparation in advance, resources are likely to be stretched beyond anyone’s comfort level. A recent publication sheds light on this year’s NHS winter crisis, citing that hospitals have not done the work to free up beds for the patients who will soon be coming in droves.
And to make matters worse, the NHS has, with consistency, missed target wait times for three of its major healthcare departments for several years in a row.
The help ease the concerns over the upcoming winter crisis that has the potential to leave patients out in the literal cold, BBC developed an interactive online tool that tracks hospital wait times throughout the NHS against published targets. The digital tool allows individuals to type in their location or a specific NHS trust and within a matter of seconds, details about the trust nearest them are displayed on the screen. The tracker shows information about the most recent wait times experienced by patients, based on recently published data, for A&E departments, cancer treatment, and planned operations and care. The tracker also displays the average wait time for broader regions compared to that specific trust, along with comparisons to other trusts near and far.
The Wait Time Dilemma
During a busier season like the winter, it is understandable that hospitals experience an increase in the number of individuals in need of immediate care, and therefore an increase in the amount of time patients may wait to see someone. However, knowing that the winter crisis is a looming threat each and every year combined with the fact that the NHS has failed to meet its target wait times consistently sparks widespread concern about the viability of the healthcare system.
In an effort to bring greater transparency to the NHS and its underpinnings, the government chose to establish and frequently publish target wait times for each department: A&E, cancer care, and planned operations. Examining the data revealed by the wait time tracker tool, A&E department wait times are meant to be within four hours for each patient, meaning from treatment to discharge, admittance, or transfer. The target for hitting the four-hour A&E department wait time is 95%, of which many trusts fall short. England, overall, hits the target wait time mark in A&E departments slightly more than 90% of the time, but the last time it made the 95% threshold was over two years ago.
Cancer care is meant to be provided within 62 days after a patient receives an urgent GP referral, with a target of 85%. Again, NHS trusts fail to meet this target percent, with the average across England coming in at 82%. Planning operations and care patients should receive the treatment they need within 18 weeks, with a target of 92%. The average target wait time is only achieved 89.1% of the time.
Without timely access to the healthcare they need, patients throughout the UK may find it difficult to lead their best life, struggling with unnecessary anxiety about when the care will come. Although the NHS has been under notable pressure for several years, the issues surrounding target wait times – and consistently missing the mark on those targets – have only gotten worse over the last few years. A specialist from a leading medical negligence firm explains that from August 2016 to August 2017, over 400,000 individuals waited longer than 18 weeks for planned operation and care, highlighting an increase of 73,000 year over year. Wait times for cancer treatment and critical A&E services have also ballooned, leaving patients and their loved ones without timely access to the treatment they need and deserve.
As the winter winds up, the NHS faces tremendous struggles in maintaining the target wait times throughout the country, especially in emergency care settings. More patients are expected to utilise the healthcare services of the NHS this year than did in the previous year. Combined with the lacking bed space, many are accurately concerned that lack without a strategic plan of action to address lagging wait times, patients may be at risk.
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