NHS A&E crisis: Labour calls for emergency summit to tackle 'unacceptable levels of patient risk' in health service

Labour has called on the Government to hold an emergency summit to address the “unacceptable levels of risk” to patients across the NHS, and to ensure patient safety and support struggling A&E departments up and down the country.

Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham is urging for local Government, the police, fire and ambulance services as well as other NHS professionals to agree co-ordinated action to address a “rapidly-deteriorating position” and ensure patient safety and support the performance of A&E departments across England.

He published a letter to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt accusing him of failing to anticipate the impact of cuts on social care capacity leaving frail elderly people “trapped in hospital,” said reports of fire engines and police cars being increasingly used as ambulances raised “major patient and public safety concerns”, and blamed difficulties getting GP appointments and staff shortages for the delays.

“Given this, and also given the rapidly deteriorating position, I believe you should call an urgent summit, including representatives from local government, the police, fire and ambulance services, as well as emergency care and other NHS professionals, to assess the situation and put in place a co-ordinated plan to ensure patient safety and support the performance of A&E departments across England, and minimise any avoidable further major incidents being declared,” he wrote.

"Patients are already being exposed to unacceptable levels of risk and the situation cannot be allowed to get any worse. Urgent action is needed to provide a coordinated response across Government from all public services.“

The letter comes as several hospital trusts have been forced to activate major incident plans to cope with a surge in demand and waiting times have plummeted to their worst levels in over a decade, causing the David Cameron to admit the health service is under “pressure”.

The Prime Minister has dismissed union claims that the NHS is “on the brink of disaster”, but the British Medical Council has claimed records show “unprecedented levels of pressure” on the service, while the Royal College of Nursing has blamed chronic underfunding and staffing shortages for the “crisis” the system is experiencing.

The latest figures showed just 92.6% of patients were seen within four hours - notably below the 95% target and a marked fall on the worst performance previously recorded since the Coalition came to power of 94.1% at the start of 2013.

open image in gallery

When broken down, the quarterly records show the country's major A&E departments fared even worse, with fewer than nine in 10 patients - 88.9% - being seen within the target.

Overall, 5.6 million patients turned up to emergency departments during the three months up to the end of December, the records show.

Mr Cameron claimed there is a ”short term pressure issue” on the NHS which needs to be met with “resources and management“.

”We've got a longer term issue which is making sure that there are named GPs in your local area which are responsible for every single frail, elderly person,” he said.

“A lot of the pressure on A&E is coming from frail, elderly people, often with many different health conditions and the best place for them, frankly, is not A&E.

But charities supporting elderly, including Age UK and Independent age, have said that cuts to council care budgets are what is having a knock-on effect on the NHS.

Additional reporting by PA