Labour unveils major NHS plan to finally cut A&E and ambulance wait times

Daily Mirror

a day ago

NHS plan to tackle 'corridor care' with 55 new clinics and 486 new ambulances - see how many your region will get
Hundreds of new ambulances and new 'same day' NHS clinics are being set up to keep people out of A&Es and help cut down on waiting times both in A&E and for ambulances.
The Government has announced a major £450 million urgent care plan to tackle the corridor care crisis in England. It comes after problems accessing GPs and mental health support has meant the number of people needing emergency hospital care has doubled since 2010/11 when the Tories came to power. Currently 140,000 patients turn up in A&Es every day. The 'Plan for Change' will see 486 new ambulances added to the fleet in England by March 2026 at a cost of £75 million.
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READ MORE: 'I spent 24 hours on a bean bag - A&E has become torture for those in mental health crisis'
Labour has announced plans to set up 40 new Emergency Care and Urgent Treatment Centres which will treat and discharge patients the same day. A further 15 mental health crisis assessment centres will also be set up across England so the mentally ill are not left for days on a trolley in A&E.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: 'Far too many patients are ending up in A&E who don't need or want to be there, because there isn't anywhere else available. Because patients can't get a GP appointment, which costs the NHS £40, they end up in A&E, which costs around £400. Worse for patients and more expensive for the taxpayer.
'The package of investment and reforms we are announcing today will help the NHS treat more patients in the community, so they don't end up stuck on trolleys in A&E. Hundreds of new ambulances will help cut the unacceptably long waiting times we've seen in recent years. And new centres for patients going through a mental health crisis will provide better care and keep them out of A&E, which are not well equipped to care for them.'
The 55 new urgent care and mental health clinics will be set up in new and existing NHS buildings away, sometimes near A&Es, which will be prioritised for the more seriously unwell. The Government says at least one in five people who attend A&E don't need to be there while an even larger number could be better cared for in their home or a local clinic. It forecasts that the plan will result in 800,000 fewer patients forced to wait over four hours in A&E this year.
Mr Streeting said: 'No patient should ever be left waiting for hours in hospital corridors or for an ambulance which ought to arrive in minutes. We can't fix more than a decade of underinvestment and neglect overnight. But through the measures we're setting out today, we will deliver faster and more convenient care for patients in emergencies."
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A Department for Health and Social Care spokesperson said: 'We have always been clear that change won't happen overnight, but with the measures we're setting out today, we will finally make progress to end corridor care.'
What is corridor care?
Earlier this year the Royal College of Nursing published a harrowing report on corridor care, saying it is the worst the NHS has ever been. Testimony from 5,000 nurses laid bare the consequences of a decade of NHS under-funding with patients spending hours slowly dying on trolleys in busy corridors and a dead patient being found under a pile of coats in a waiting room.
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Ambulances being backed up outside A&Es unable to unload patients forced a decision in recent years to accept patients on to wards whether or not there was a bed. This has meant putting patients on trolleys in corridors, converted cupboards, bathrooms, cloakrooms and even car parks - something that had previously been only a temporary measure for hospitals for a 24 period when they were under exceptional pressure.
The plan does not commit to ending corridor care this year but aims to reduce how frequently hospitals are forced to resort to it.
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The plan will also see paramedics treat more patients at the scene where possible rather than bringing them to A&E. More 'urgent community response teams' will also be set up to help with incidents like elderly people having a fall and will direct patients to community services when they need follow-up care.
Sir Jim Mackey, the chief executive of the NHS in England, said: 'Urgent and emergency care services provide a life-saving first line of defence for patients but for too long now, despite the incredible hard work of staff, the speed and quality of NHS care has often not been good enough. This major plan sets out how we will work together to resuscitate NHS urgent and emergency care, with a focus on getting patients out of corridors, keeping more ambulances on the road and enabling those ready to leave hospital to do so as soon as possible.'
The plan applies only to England because the NHS is run by devolved governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It will also see greater use of 'virtual wards' where patients are set up with remote monitoring devices in their homes and provided with home visits from medics. The NHS will publish league tables to show which trusts are best and worst at implementing the reforms.
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Mr Streeting added: 'By shifting staff and resources out of hospitals and into communities, and modernising NHS technology and equipment, our Plan for Change will make sure the NHS can be there for you when you need it, once again.'
The four-hour A&E wait standard means most patients arriving at A&E must be admitted or discharged within four hours. The NHS constitution states that at least 95% of patients should be admitted, transferred, or discharged within four hours of attending A&E. The latest data shows 74.8% of patients in England were seen within four hours in A&Es in May. Under New Labour the 95% target was consistently met but not a single month has met it now since July 2015.
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Dr Tim Cooksley, immediate past president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said: 'While it is refreshing to see an announcement of some kind about the urgent and emergency care plan, it is simply not going to prevent corridor care for the foreseeable future. The reason is social care remains unaddressed and patients who are left receiving care in corridors are older, sicker acute medical patients who are not suitable for same day emergency care or urgent treatment centres. This means the exit block - when patients cannot be moved into a hospital bed - won't be removed and, therefore, patients will continue to require corridor care. Shifting care into the community is a laudable aim but there are insufficient resources to enable this to happen which makes it a faux promise.'
The average ambulance response time for category 2 calls was 27 minutes and 34 seconds in May. This is almost double the NHS constitutional standard of 18 minutes.
How many new ambulances each region will get
North West Ambulance Service - 45 new ambulances
North East Ambulance Service - 30 new ambulances
West Midlands Ambulance Service - 28 new ambulances
East of England Ambulance Service - 29 new ambulances
Yorkshire Ambulance Service - 46 new ambulances
East Midlands Ambulance Service - 30 new ambulances
Isle of Wight NHS Trust - 8 new ambulances
London Ambulance Service - 72 new ambulances
South Central Ambulance Service - 57 new ambulances
South East Coast Ambulance Service - 70 new ambulances
South Western Ambulance Service - 71 new ambulances
Anna Parry, managing director of the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives, said: 'We are particularly heartened to see the plan's emphasis on the reduction and improved management of hospital handover delays. Handover delays have the greatest detrimental impact on ambulance resources and create unnecessary delays and additional harm for thousands of patients each year. The elimination of corridor care and the focus on reducing 12-hour waits at emergency departments is also welcomed.'