University Hospitals Birmingham Trust (UHB) has failed to meet waiting time targets every month since the last General Election, new figures from the House of Commons Library have shown.
The NHS Constitution says that patients should wait no longer than 18 weeks from GP referral to treatment and Trusts are supposed to ensure that 92% of patients are seen in that time frame. UHB has failed to meet that target since May 2018.
UHB has also repeatedly failed to meet their A&E target, which is that 95% of patients at A&E should wait less than 4 hours. The last time this target was met was June 2015.
The Health Secretary was challenged to name NHS trusts which are meeting their targets on BBC Breakfast last month but failed to do so. Not a single NHS trust in the country is currently meeting its 4-hour A&E target.
Some Trusts have failed to meet any of the three targets in almost a decade. University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust has missed all the targets every month since 2015, while Hull University teaching Hospitals Trust and Worcester Acute Hospitals Trust have missed them all since 2016.
Labour’s plan to get back to safe waiting times within the first term of government, meeting the 4-hour A&E waiting time target, treatment within 18 weeks, and tests and scans within 6 weeks, includes:
- Delivering two million more operations and appointments at evening and weekends each year
- Doubling the number of NHS scanners, buying new AI-enabled scanners to diagnose faster and more accurately
- Reforming the NHS so it provides more care in the community and stops people needing to go to hospital
- Delivering the NHS workforce plan, training thousands more doctors and nurses a year
Labour’s plans for more appointments and scanners will be paid for by clamping down on tax avoidance and closing loopholes for non-doms.
Preet Kaur Gill, MP for Birmingham Edgbaston, said:
“On Rishi Sunak’s watch, record numbers of patients in Birmingham are forced to wait for hours on end in A&E when delays can cost lives. It’s clear as day that the Conservatives cannot be trusted with our NHS.
“When Labour was last in government, patients were treated in good time, and the maximum waiting time was cut from 18 months to 18 weeks. Labour will get patients treated on time with 2 million more weekend and evening appointments, paid for by clamping down on tax avoidance and closing loopholes for non-doms.
“Birmingham deserves better. It’s time for a change in government, and only Labour can get the NHS back on its feet.”
Ends
Notes
Referral to treatment waiting times: the last time each current trust had more than 92% of its waiting list under 18 weeks
Diagnostic waiting times: the last month that each current trust had less than 1% of its diagnostic waiting list waiting over 6 weeks
A&E waiting times: the last month that each current trust recorded over 95% of patients spending under 4 hours in A&E
A Department of Health and Social Care source told The Times in March “Victoria [Atkins] believes that taxpayers, especially younger ones, shouldn’t have to stump up more money just because an individual trust isn’t delivering like others are. We are holding trusts with the longest waits to account for the options they are offering to patients to speed up care.” https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/patients-on-long-nhs-waiting-lists-will-get-private-care-gcmz87nhx
The Health Secretary was challenged to name NHS trusts which are meeting their targets on BBC Breakfast last month but failed to do so. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-politics-68788242
Commentaires