March 'busiest month on record' for A&E departments

There were 2.35 million attendances in accident and emergency (A&E) departments across England in March – the highest since records began since August 2010.

The previous record was 2.29 million attendances in December 2022.

The year up to March was also the busiest year on record for A&E services with 26.2 million attending at hospitals – up from 24.8 million in the the last comparable year pre-pandemic.

Some improvements have been made since the previous NHS data set on A&E waiting times, response times to suspected cancer and ambulance response times but often still fell far below NHS targets.

Nearly three-quarters (74.2%) of A&E patients were seen within four hours in March – an improvement on the 70.9% seen within the same time in February.

But this missed an intermediary target set in December 2022 of 76% of A&E patients to be seen within four hours by March 2024.

The number of people waiting more than 12 hours in A&E departments in England from a decision to admit to actually being admitted was 42,968 in March, down from 44,417 in February and 54,308 in January, which was the second-highest figure on record.

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NHS England hit its target of diagnosing or ruling out cancer within 28 days in 75% of cases where patients were urgently referred. This figure increased from 70.9% in January to 78.1% the following month.

But Minesh Patel, head of policy at Macmillan Cancer Support, said: “This is just one part of the equation.”

The number of patients waiting longer than 62 days for an urgent suspected cancer referral or consultant upgrade to their first definitive treatment for cancer increased from 62.3% in January to 63.9% the following month. The target is 85%.

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Mr Patel added: “Hardworking healthcare professionals across England are running on empty, doing everything they can in a system that needs urgent reform.

“This can’t go on. It’s time the UK government provided a long-term cancer strategy to ensure everybody with a cancer diagnosis gets the support they need when they need it.”

Meanwhile, the average response time in March for ambulances in England dealing with the most urgent incidents, defined as calls from people with life-threatening illnesses or injuries, fell by five seconds from February to eight minutes and 20 seconds.

But the March figures were still above the target standard response time of seven minutes.

Ambulances took an average of 33 minutes and 50 seconds last month to respond to emergency calls such as strokes and sepsis.

This is down from 36 minutes and 20 seconds in February – the target is 18 minutes.

Response times for urgent calls, such as late stages of labour, non-severe burns and diabetes averaged two hours, three minutes and 47 seconds in March, down slightly from two hours, four minutes and 12 seconds in February.

The health service performance data for February coincides with five days of strike action that month.

NHS national medical director Professor Sir Stephen Powis said the latest data “demonstrates once again how the NHS is working flat out to recover services” despite “enormous demand”.

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He added that industrial action “has had a significant impact” on elective recovery.

Sir Stephen said “there is further to go” but “it is clear the NHS is treating more patients more quickly and we have announced new ambitions for this financial year to build on the improvements made so far”.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak claimed this morning his “plan is working”, saying: “Whilst we haven’t made as much progress as I would have liked, today’s figures show that we are making headway towards that goal.”

But Labour‘s shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said Mr Sunak had “failed the NHS”.

“He’s missed his own targets to cut ambulance waits and A&E waits. Patients with suspected heart attacks or strokes are waiting almost double the safe amount of time, when every minute matters.

“Waiting lists are still 320,000 longer than when he became prime minister, despite his promise to cut them.”

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The new data comes as research found nearly half of NHS workers have looked at job adverts for work outside the service.

Some 47% have looked at work outside the NHS and 29% have actively inquired about non-NHS work, according to academics at the University of Bath.

Between March 2023 and June 2023 some 14% applied for non-NHS jobs.

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Researchers said stress, workload, staff shortages and pay are the top reasons for staff leaving the NHS.

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