A COVENTRY MP has slammed new figures which show patients are waiting longer than ever at University Hospital’s A&E.
Geoffrey Robinson, MP for Coventry North West, said that despite the ‘Herculean efforts’ of frontline NHS, resources had been stretched to breaking point – warning the situation at the hospital ‘looks worse than last year’.
According to the statistics, released by NHS England, the last time University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) met the target for seeing 95 per cent of A&E patients within four hours was back in July 2012.
Since then, it has missed every target – with figures dipping as low was just 74.4 per cent of patients being seen within four hours between April to June 2016.
Geoffrey Robinson MP said: “Despite the Herculean efforts of front line NHS staff, Coventry residents are coming to me with real concerns about the care both they and their relatives are receiving.”
“Things already look far worse than last year, clearly there is a need for two urgent actions: an increase in funding from the Government, and a full-blooded attempt to support Coventry’s primary healthcare services which can ease at least some of the pressure on A&E, the Government must act now on this growing crisis in our hospitals.”
Geoffrey Robinson, Coventry North West MP
“Tory policies are failing our health and social care service.
“The NHS is underfunded and understaffed; patients in (insert local area) shouldn’t have to wait longer to see their GP.
“Labour created the NHS to care for us all and now it’s time to care for the NHS.”
THE NHS England figures also revealed that the number of days of ‘delayed transfer of care’ – when a patient is ready to go home or move to a less acute ward, but is prevented from doing so – had dramatically increaded.
In October 2011, there were 1,681 days in delayed transfer of care, compared to 2,573 days in October 2016.
The Trust has also missed targets of patients being seen within 18 weeks of a GP referral since October 2015.
A spokesperson for UHCW NHS Trust said: “We continue to experience high demand for our accident and emergency services, and a high number of patients with complex needs who have required longer periods of hospital admission.
“These pressures can then have an effect on the delivery of other standards, such as the time between patients being referred by their GP and them receiving treatment.
“These are not the standards which we would like to deliver for our patients, and we would like to apologise to anyone who has experienced delays.
“We are working hard with our health and social care partners across Coventry and Warwickshire, to ensure that we are able to discharge patients as soon as they become fit to go home or to another place of care.
“We would like to remind the public to consider which NHS services they use so that we can help manage the pressure on our emergency services.”
