THE Health Secretary has condemned “unacceptable” waits for treatment in Southampton’s A&E department, amid evidence the crisis is deepening.
Jeremy Hunt spoke out after city MP John Denham alerted him to new statistics revealing that more patients are enduring lengthy delays.
But the pair clashed over the causes of the problems, after the Labour MP accused Mr Hunt of trying to “blame doctors for a crisis made in his department”.
Meanwhile, experts are warning that emergency care systems could collapse within six months in some areas, as a result of rising demand.
Casualty departments are expected to deal with 95% of patients within four hours, a flagship target the Coalition inherited from Labour.
But Mr Denham, intervening in the Commons, warned that: * University Hospital Southampton NHS Trust missed the 95% target in no fewer than 28 of the past 30 weeks.
* In the week ending April 7, the figure plunged to just 60% – although it has recovered to above 90% in some weeks since.
* Almost 7,000 patients have waited longer then four hours at the hospital over the past six months.
* The average number suffering long waits each week is 232.
Mr Hunt has triggered a political row by blaming Labour’s 2004 GP contract – allowing family doctors to opt out of out-of-hours care – for the crisis.
But experts have pointed to other causes, including a failure to integrate health and social care and the botched introduction of the new 111 NHS helpline.
Callers have waited up to 30 minutes to get an answer on the 111 line – or abandoned calls altogether – forcing people to go to A&E instead.
Mr Denham told Mr Hunt: “It’s clear this is a crisis of the whole system, right through to discharge into social care. This was made far worse by the unnecessary upheavals in management that his Tory-led Government has imposed.
“As Jeremy Hunt’s own advisors have praised local primary care for their efforts to avoid hospital admissions, will he stop trying to blame one set of doctors for a crisis made in his department?”
In reply, the Health Secretary said: “I am not blaming any doctors – I am blaming the Labour party for making disastrous decisions in office. If Southampton is not meeting its A and E targets, that is unacceptable.”
And he added: “As a result of those disastrous changes to the GP contract, we have seen a significant rise in attendances at A&E – four million more people.”
The statistics, compiled by Mr Denham, also reveal problems at Hampshire Hospitals Trust, which includes Royal Hampshire County Hospital, in Winchester.
It has failed to hit the 95% target in 25 of the past 30 weeks – recording a figure of just 81.1% of patients seen within four hours in the first week of April. More than 5,300 patients have waited longer than four hours at Hampshire Hospitals Trust over the past six months, Mr Denham said.
Urgent care Dr Michael Marsh, medical director at UHS, said: “Like many other large regional hospital trusts across the UK, we have been experiencing high demand for urgent care – regularly seeing more than 300 patients a day in A&E.
“Unfortunately, during an extremely busy and prolonged winter which created a sustained period of pressure on our resources, this resulted in many more people waiting longer than we would want or normally expect. However, we have been and continue to work hard to reduce waiting times where it is clinically appropriate to do so and we would be happy to discuss our progress with the secretary of state directly.”
