London’s Accident & Emergency departments are in crisis. New figures reveal that February saw 22,000 people wait longer than 12 hours to be seen in the capital’s hospitals, representing more than one in 10 of those attending, according to the NHS. One London trust, Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals, saw nearly a third of patients waiting at least 12 hours, the highest of any in the country.
It is difficult to be definitive with this data set, given it is the first time that waits of more than 12 hours from the point of arrival at A&E have been collated. But it is clear the NHS is in a grave condition. The organisation’s operational standard states that at least 95 per cent of patients be admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours. This target has not been met nationally since 2015.
