NHS patients endured the worst winter on record

New analysis from the British Medical Association (BMA) has shown that NHS patients endured the worst winter on record last year, highlighting a health system that is struggling to cope with demand.

The analysis revealed that last winter was the worst winter on record, with A&E attendances, waiting times, trolley waits and bed occupancy levels all having increased and numerous health leaders warning that the NHS in England needs additional funding now to avoid a year-round crisis in the NHS.

With targets being consistently missed, the data also shows that there were 7.9 million attendances at all A&Es, with five million attendances at major A&Es, causing performances against the four-hour wait target to deteriorate, dropping from 87.2 per cent in 2016/17 to 85.0 per cent in 2017/18. Of concern, aggregate performance at all A&Es reached its worst level since records begin in March 2018, with just 84.6 per cent of patients seen, admitted or discharged within four hours.

Additionally, the BMA analysis showed that bed occupancy levels had risen, with 54 trusts having recorded occupancy of 100 per cent on at least one day during the most recent winter, leaving 82 per cent of doctors feeling that their place of work was under-resourced, 62 per cent recognising that their workload was higher than previous winters and a majority said the mass cancellation of elective operations over the winter, intended to ease pressures, had either no impact (46 per cent) or a negative impact (38 per cent) on pressure levels.

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, BMA council chair, said: "These figures show just how critical the crisis in the NHS has become. Congestion and delays are having a profound impact on patients' experience of the NHS and means frontline staff are left working under the most challenging of conditions.

"This winter once again exposed the limitations of trying to plan and prepare for record levels of demand. Even after cancelling tens of thousands of operations, beds remained full, which shows that you can’t continuously plug gaps by penny pinching and poaching from elsewhere in an overstretched service. Our health spending lags behind that of other similar European countries so the government must urgently increase spending to address systemic pressures, and review its long-term strategy for the health service. As the NHS enters a state of year-round crisis - the time for action by government is now."