NHS summer crisis 'worst on record' as health service fails to meet cancer referral target

The NHS has had its worst summer crisis on record, experts have warned, as the impact of thousands of cancelled non-urgent appointments in December and January has left hospitals with unprecedented waiting lists and little spare capacity to clear them before another winter rolls around.

August performance figures released by the NHS show that an unprecedented heatwave has meant no respite for emergency departments and numbers of patients waiting more than 12 hours in A&E are at a record high.

Health experts also expressed serious concern after official figures showed that only 78.2 per cent of cancer patients given an urgent referral by their GP started treatment within 62 days in July. The target is 85 per cent.

Jonathan Ashworth MP, Labour’s shadow health and social care secretary, responding to the performance statistics, said a plan was needed to ensure patients would be safe for the upcoming winter.

“On all key performance measures the NHS is struggling to keep up with demand – A&E performance is down, waiting lists are rising, and even cancer services are overstretched,” he said.

“And with news this week of the highest vacancies ever and hospitals in deficit of £4.3bn we are set for an extremely challenging winter unless ministers take action now to keep patients safe.”

Dr Taj Hassan, the president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said winter pressure funding would need to be committed to to ensure patient safety.

“These figures show that last month was the worst August on record in terms of hospital performance to the four-hour standard and shows that despite the best efforts in terms of planning we will be entering autumn and winter in a very fragile state with little room for manoeuvre unless more urgent action is taken with funding for winter. Safety for patients and staff must be an absolute priority,” he said.

Dr Rob Harwood, BMA consultants’ committee chair, said the statistics painted a bleak picture and “should serve as a warning for the future”.

“They clearly show that the worrying increase in demand that doctors have been warning about for some time is now a reality – yet there is no additional capacity to meet this,” Dr Harwood said.

“The number of patients spending more than 12 hours in A&E is now at an all-time high. This is an unacceptable amount of time for patients with urgent health needs, and for whom any wait can be both physically painful and distressing,” he added.

An NHS England spokesperson said: “With cancer referrals in recent months up by one-third on the same period last year, thanks to the hard work of our staff, the NHS is treating a record number of cancer patients in England – nearly 2,000 more in July than the same month last year, which means more people getting care earlier.”