Statistics released yesterday show an NHS under increased pressure, a few key statistics follow for November 2016:
- 1,906,784 visits to A & E, an increase of 1.7% on November 2015;
- Increase of 4.5% on A & E attendances for the twelve months to November 2016 compared with the twelve months to November 2015;
- 4% of patients managed to be admitted, transferred or discharged from A & E within 4 hours (this was below the 95% target for patients to be dealt with);
- 16 months have passed since the 95% target of patients spending 4 hours or less in A & E was last achieved;
- 193,680 days of delayed transfers of care, an increase of 40,525 days on the November 2015 figure;
- Record number of 6,825 patients delayed at midnight on the last Thursday of November 2016, the highest number since records began being collected in August 2010.
Many inferences can be drawn from the statistics released from the NHS but one of the most pertinent is that demand continues to increase and targets across the NHS continue to fail to be met. There is the growing feeling that unless something is urgently done to address the increases in demand for NHS services it may face a catastrophic event which significantly impacts its ability to effectively deliver health services to the population. It is hoped that this is addressed sooner rather than later.
