Further Increase In A&E Waiting Times Revealed

Fresh healthcare statistics have shown that the number of people waiting longer than 12 hours at Emergency Departments has doubled in the past year.

Some 3,482 patients waited to be treated and either discharged or admitted to hospital for over 12 hours at Northern Ireland's A&E departments this year, just under 5% of all attendees.

The statistics came to light in the Department of Health's Waiting Time Statistics bulletin for the quarter ending 30 September 2019.

Pressure facing EDs appears to be growing when we consider the summer period, with 214,685 people attending Emergency Departments, over 9,000 more than the same period in 2018. In September meanwhile, some 71,820 people attended for medical assistance, 7.6% more than in 2018.

Those who were discharged home following treatment had an average wait of just under three hours, while those admitted to hospital waited around seven and a half hours, the figures reveal.

During September 2019, the Craigavon Area Hospital reported the longest median time spent in an ED from arrival to admission to hospital in a Type 1 ED (9 hours 33 minutes), whilst the RBHSC reported the shortest median time of three hours 45 minutes.

Following the statistical publication, Ulster Unionist MLA Roy Beggs reiterated calls for local health matters to be returned to Westminster.

It comes as Ulster Unionist Peer Lord Empey introduced a landmark Private Members Bill that would see local health functions returned to Westminster until a new Northern Ireland Executive is established.

The east Antrim MLA explained: "There is no one simple answer to the resolving the current problems in our emergency departments, but there are a number of contributory factors which medical professionals tell me need to be addressed if we are to lessen the pressure. We have an ageing population with an increasing number of long-term health conditions yet we still don't have enough beds, we still don't have enough staff and we still don't even have enough adequate care packages in the community.

"Our local health service is buckling under the strain of all the pressures and delaying taking measures and decisions to fix them is only making the situation worse. We can't allow the impasse at Stormont to continue getting in the way of a Minister taking charge of the situation. It's time Westminster took responsibility for the benefit and safety of local patients."

Stormont's institutions have been suspended since January 2017, effectively leaving local health services in limbo in the absence of a ministerial executive.

Meanwhile, DoH Permanent Secretary Richard Pengelly recently said the system is facing a £20 million deficit in the next year, as demands that they "simply cannot afford" continue to pile up.



(JG/CM)