A&E deaths in Nottingham hospitals doubled at the height of NHS winter crisis in December, an exclusive investigation has found. Accident and Emergency wards were at breaking point in December 2022.
The figures show that 57 people died in A&E at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust during December. It is almost double the average of 28 A&E deaths across the previous four Decembers.
Figures obtained by the Reach Data Unit have revealed there was a huge rise in the number of deaths in A&E during the winter crisis. Freedom of Information requests were sent to every NHS trust in England asking for the number of people to have died in their A&E departments each month, with 84 trusts providing figures.
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Back in December, health directors in Nottinghamshire declared a second 'critical incident' in as many weeks. Officials at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH) said at the time they were facing a large number of people arriving at the Emergency Department (ED) who need to be admitted to both hospitals suffering with respiratory conditions, including flu.
In a statement responding to the figures, a spokesperson for Nottingham University Hospitals Trust said that December was the busiest month on record for A&Es across the country - with NUH also experiencing this. Keith Girling, Nottingham University Hospital’s Medical Director added: “This winter saw a record number of people using urgent and emergency care, with both Covid-19 and flu circulating within our communities, which added to general winter illness pressures.
“National data shows that December 2022 was the busiest month on record for A&Es across the country, with NUH also experiencing this. Our thoughts are with the families who lost loved ones during this time and we would like to reassure people that we continue to work hard to improve patient flow and ensure that patients are seen in a timely way.”
Michael Hargreaves, whose wife has died in May, aged 51, after receiving care at the Queen's Medical Centre (QMC), has described the figures as "shocking". He has previously told Nottinghamshire Live that during this first visit, his wife was only given a laxative, which didn't work, and was eventually sent home with "no proper aftercare."
Because of the continued pain being suffered by Mrs Hargreaves, she attended the QMC's A&E department twice after her hospital visit. But on both occasions, she waited for around 12 hours without being seen.
After almost a month, Mr Hargreaves is yet to get closure. "The hospital has got a lot to answer for. It will hopefully all go to a full blown inquest.
"We were begging the staff to help. The statistics are shocking.
"I just do not want this to happen to anyone else. What has happened to me, my children and my grandchildren.
"My granddaughter is four years old now and she is going to grow up without a grandma. I just do not want other people to suffer what we suffered as a family."
Nationally, a record low of just 65 percent of patients were seen within four hours of arrival, compared to the target of 95 percent. Meanwhile, a record high of 54,532 patients had to wait over 12 hours for admission.
An NHS spokesperson said: “This simplistic analysis only looks at one part of the picture, and does not take into account factors like level of demand - winter saw record numbers using urgent and emergency care, with the ‘twindemic’ of coronavirus and flu adding to significant pressure, and published data shows that December 2022 was the busiest month on record for A&Es with 2.28 million patients attending.
“Our urgent and emergency recovery plan sets out how we will boost capacity and cut waits further ahead of next winter, with thousands more beds, hundreds of new ambulances and measures to improve patient flow - we are already seeing the results of that work, with recent data showing ambulance response times are the fastest they have been for almost two years, and A&E performance has also improved.”
A spokesperson for Keep Our NHS Public said: “Keep Our NHS Public has always campaigned for a fully-public health service, without vast sums of money being diverted to the shareholders of private health companies.
"The increase in A&E deaths that many Trusts reported last Winter was a direct result of the long-term underfunding of the NHS, leading to massive staff vacancies that are especially noticeable in A&E. The Conservative government is very happy to blame the victim, to deflect attention from their responsibility for every unnecessary death.
"The NUH Trust certainly has its problems and in the past we have both commented on them and raised them directly with senior managers. But we believe they are in an increasingly impossible financial position, squeezed bertween a government that would love to privatise more and more services and an older and poorer population. Increasing deaths in A&E are a tragic symptom of this.”
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