New data on the scale of NHS A&E waits reveals that 10 per cent of patients waited for more than 12 hours in England in February.
In some areas of the country, such as Shropshire and Cornwall, one in five patients waited more than 12 hours after arriving at emergency departments.
The figures have been published for the first time following several stories by The Independent that exposed leaked data showing 50,000 people a week were waiting 12 hours during the peak of the winter crisis in December.
Figures, previously only published once a year, will now be made available monthly after NHS England was asked by the government to begin publishing regularly.
Dr Tim Cooksley, president of the Society for Acute Medicine, warned the latest data shows the NHS was “heading for extremely troubled times” and that pressures on services are “increasingly causing harm to patients”.
The new data shows 12-hour trolley waits are four times higher than that shown in the annual data published since 2015. This is because one set of data measures waits from the time a person arrives in A&E while the other only measures it from when a decision to admit a patient has been made.
Previous stories by The Independent revealed patients waiting 12 hours from arrival hit a record 106,000 a month in June. A later analysis of leaked data revealed 15,000 patient deaths could be linked to long A&E waits in 2022.
The Royal College of Emergency Medicine, which has been campaigning for NHS England to publish the data monthly, referred the organisation to the UK Statistics Authority last year accusing it of misleading the public.
Meanwhile, the NHS’ monthly data shows 7.2 million patients were waiting for surgery or care in February as hospitals struggled to tackle the rising backlog. However, hospitals did make progress on reducing the number of people waiting for more than 18 months for care – dropping by one-third in February this year 29,778.
The government had previously set a deadline for the NHS to clear the backlog of those waiting more than 18 months by March this year. However, The Independent reported in March that the deadline was likely to be missed by more than 10,000 because of disruption caused by the junior doctors’ strikes.
The figures come following a second round of strike action this week, deemed by the NHS to be the “most disruptive round of industrial action it has ever faced”.
According to NHS England, prior to this week’s strikes, 285,000 patient appointments and operations have been cancelled since December.
Reports prior to the walkout suggested 350,000 patient appointments were likely to be cancelled during this week alone.
Figures on cancer services show the NHS hit its target to diagnose 75 per cent of patients within 28 days for the first time since the target was introduced in April 2021, with 171,453 people treated out of 228,526 referred in February.
Professor Sir Stephen Powis, the NHS’ medical director, said: “The last few months have been demanding for the NHS as record numbers of patients have come forward for care.
“Today’s data shows demand on services is not relenting with A&E attendances and ambulance calls outs in March recorded at the highest level so far this year – even higher than a very busy January.
“But amidst the demand and industrial action, staff have progressed on key NHS priorities with the number of people waiting the longest for elective care continuing to reduce while for the first time ever the NHS has also hit the faster diagnosis standard for cancer – with more patients getting a definitive diagnosis or the all clear within 28 days.
