Ian Higginson, vice-president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, hit out at any attempt to “discredit” warnings that as many as 500 people are dying every week because of delays in emergency care. Mr Higginson told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the Royal College of Emergency Medicine figures were more than a “guesstimate”.
“We have really good evidence that has been accumulated over decades that long waits in emergency departments are associated with poor outcomes for patients These are real figures and I worry that we’re going to hear attempts to spin and manipulate this data and discredit it. I think if we hear that, we’ve got to say no – that is spin. This is a real problem. It’s happening now in our emergency departments
“What we’ve been hearing over the last few days is that the current problems are all due to Covid or they’re all due to flu, or that this is complex, you mustn’t jump to conclusions – all that sort of stuff. If you’re at the front line, you know that this is a longstanding problem. This isn’t a short-term thing. The sort of things we’re seeing happen every winter, and it still seems to come as a surprise to the NHS.”
On the same programme,.Education minister Robert Halfon said the pressure on A&E departments is a “top priority” for the Prime Minister. The Conservative MP, appearing on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, acknowledged the pressures facing the health system but said: “I’m absolutely clear that the Prime Minister treats this as a top priority
“We’re increasing the NHS capacity by the equivalent of 7,000 beds, spending an extra £500million to speed up hospital discharge and improve capacity.”
He admitted that more needed to be done but defended the Government’s response. “The Government is putting a lot of funding and doing everything possible. We know, of course, that many of these problems have been caused by the pandemic and the pressures on the NHS that we’ve seen over the past few years.”
