North-West London Has Some Of The Longest A&E Waits In The Country
The length of time patients in the UK have had to wait for treatment in accident and emergency (A&E) departments has been revealed in a new report, with north-west London coming out worst.BBC News reports that the Labour Party has seen data showing that the London North West Hospital Trust did not manage to see 32.2 per cent of people who turned up at A&E within four hours during the week ending October 19th, with similarly poor results for the following week, when it failed to treat 26.7 per cent of patients in this timeframe.
The seven-day period leading up to October 19th also saw significant waits for patients attending A&E departments run by the Peterborough and Stamford NHS Foundation Trust, the University Hospital of North Staffordshire NHS Trust and the Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust.
Furthermore, the week ending on October 26th was bad once again for waiting times at the Peterborough and Stamford Trust, as well as the North Bristol NHS Trust and the Medway NHS Foundation Trust.
The data shows that 827 individuals had to wait over four hours for treatment from the north-west London Trust during the first week of the analysis, with 628 patients affected the following week.
Labour London Assembly member and practising GP Dr Onkar Sahota called these revelations "dangerous", but said they were most likely due to the recent closure of two nearby A&E departments, meaning patients were having to travel elsewhere for treatment, potentially putting their health and lives at risk on the journey.
Dr Sahota commented: "Despite consistent warnings, the mayor and government have refused to recognise the dangerous impact these closures have had.
"We can only hope that with the message now devastatingly clear, they will take urgent action to help get A&E services in north-west London back on track."
In response to the report, the Trust released a statement explaining that it was working with its healthcare partners to address the issues raised.
Expert Opinion
Patients visiting accident and emergency departments should be provided immediate care, as this can be the difference between life and death, which makes these reports of long waiting times in London A&E departments extremely troubling. <br/> <br/>“We have numerous cases where patients’ conditions have deteriorated after patients did not receive medical care in good time. Hopefully this report will act as a warning to the national health service and lead to introduction of new measures and support for overstretched A&E departments. <br/> <br/>“Hopefully this report will be taken into account and measures to improve access to care at accident and emergency departments in the capital will be outlined to reassure patients that they will be receive the standard of care they expect.” Mandy Luckman - Partner