Rishi Sunak promises ‘fastest-ever improvement’ in NHS wait times on North East visit
Rishi Sunak has promised the government’s emergency care plan will bring “the largest and fastest improvement in emergency wait times in the history of the NHS”.
Visiting Darlington, the Prime Minister pledged to fix ambulance delays and the emergency room crisis, despite critics saying there are serious questions about the number of staff needed to improve NHS care.
As part of a new plan to improve emergency and emergency care, the government has set targets by March 2024 to:
76% of A&E patients are treated in four hours. It is currently less than 70% and the official target is 95%.
An average response time of 30 minutes for Category 2 emergency calls such as heart attack and stroke over the course of 2023/24. In December, patients waited over 90 minutes. The official goal is 18 minutes.
Mr Sunak said his plan meant there would be more beds, more ambulances, more staff and better social care and “if we can do it, I think we will – in fact I know we will see it – that biggest and fastest ever improvement in emergency wait times in NHS history”.
He added: “That’s the ambition of our plan that we set out today… I’m really confident that we can deliver on it.”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak shakes the hand of an ambulance worker during his tour of the University Hospital of North Tees, Stockton
Mr Sunak said that with the “hard work” and “ingenuity” of NHS staff we will “solve this problem”.
He added, “We’re going to make things better for patients and make a tremendous difference for people across the country.”
During a question-and-answer session with health workers, the Prime Minister did not defend that heart attacks and strokes would need to be treated within 18 minutes this year.
When asked about ambulance wait times, he said: “Of course it’s not good enough, of course my goodness, what happened in December wasn’t great, it wasn’t great for any of you who work in the NHS, it was not great for patients.
“We’re going to go back to 30 minutes later this year and then go back to pre-pandemic levels after that, I’d say that’s ambitious.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak during a Q&A with NHS Chief Amanda Pritchard (second right) at Teesside University in Darlington
“Based on our current location, the magnitude of improvement will represent the largest and fastest improvement in NHS emergency care wait times on record.
“If we can pull this off, we will do it.
“The things we are already doing, you will see, made a difference in January.
“I think you’re going to see a difference in the January numbers compared to December because some of the things we did at discharge to get people out of hospitals have already had some impact.
“I think hopefully we’ll keep our fingers crossed when the numbers come out for January you’ll see things are already improving.”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak during a question and answer session at Teesside University in Darlington
When asked “when are you actually going to start paying the nurses properly,” Mr Sunak said, “I’d love to, nothing would bring me more joy than waving a magic wand and making you all pay a lot more.”
But he added: “An important part of us in getting inflation under control and halving it is making sure the government is responsible about their borrowing because when that gets out of hand it makes it worse.” and it’s about making payroll sensible and fair.”
The new plan, which will not be supported by additional money, would see the NHS buying 800 more ambulances, opening 5,000 new hospital beds and treating thousands more patients at home via video link in so-called ‘virtual wards’.
It comes as NHS England announced plans to transform NHS 111 to unburden hospitals by improving patient access to specialized pediatric advice for children.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak during a question and answer session at Teesside University in Darlington
The move will direct some children directly for a same-day appointment with a specialist instead of going to the emergency room, with the aim of avoiding hundreds of unnecessary hospital admissions.
Both adults and children will also be given direct access to urgent mental health care across England in the hope that fewer people will come to A&E in a mental health crisis.
NHS England said the plans will see an increased number of clinicians working over 111, including retired staff and returnees.
NHS 111 will also be integrated into the NHS app for ease of use.
In addition, family support workers are deployed in some A&E departments—at least one in each region—to support children with non-urgent needs and other families.
Virtual stations are also to be offered for more children.
Sean Duggan, chief executive of the NHS Confederation’s mental health network, said: “Healthcare leaders will welcome the expansion of NHS 111 as a key front door for children and young people with mental health problems to get the support they need.
“Hopefully this will lead to earlier access to therapies and treatments, which in turn will reduce the number of people who reach a state of crisis where they call 999 or end up in emergency situations with nowhere else to go, or worse.”
dr Adrian Boyle, President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, spoke earlier about the government’s overall emergency care plan, saying there was a “significant and dangerous crisis” in emergency care in December which must never happen again.
He praised some of the plan’s aims but said there was an NHS workforce crisis, telling Times Radio: ‘Retention is a big part of it. You can hire as many junior nurses and doctors as you want, but if you have ‘if you don’t get the seniors to take care of them and develop them, it’s actually quite difficult to get a lot out of them.
“The staff plan has been written but it is not made public and is separate from it… staff retention is key to getting all this work done because for the most part all the issues we see around NHS work and NHS crises are with that related workforce.”
Siva Anandaciva, chief analyst at health organization The King’s Fund, told the PA news agency on Sunday the proposals were “broadly reasonable” and described them as “the first really significant push to say we need more hospital beds in this country.” “.
But he added: “Whatever service you look at, the only thing that will affect the quality of care and access is the number of staff you have. So unless you have a clear proposal for that as part of that plan, it’s hard to see how that’s going to play out very quickly.”
