Accident and Emergency waiting times have got even worse since the turn of the year, new figures show - with the British Red Cross being drafted in to help some hospitals cope.
A&E departments in England again failed to meet the target of seeing 95% of patients within four hours during the week ending 4 January.
Figures released on Friday morning show just 86.7% of patients were seen within this time.
In the three months leading up to Christmas the figure was 92.6% - the worst level since the four-hour target was introduced a decade ago.
More than a dozen hospitals have enacted emergency measures over recent days and the British Red Cross is helping some transport patients.
Against this increasingly troubled backdrop, Labour has pledged 20,000 additional nurses if they win the election in May - and has outlined a five-point plan that could immediately bolster A&E services.
Mr Miliband said: "Clearing up this mess will require the long-term investment only Labour is prepared to make - 8,000 extra GPs, 5,000 more homecare workers, 3,000 more midwives and 20,000 additional nurses.
"But the scale of the current crisis also demands immediate action.
"If I was Prime Minister we would be taking action now to ease pressure on A&E by helping families see a GP, getting more nurses answering calls to NHS 111, halting the closures of walk-in centres, tackling the scandal of social care, and recruiting former nurses back into the NHS to help deal with staffing pressures."
The Red Cross has been helping in cities such as Sheffield, where the NHS trust says it is facing "unusual demand".
Andy Peers, British Red Cross operations manager for Yorkshire, said: "This is the first time we have provided such support in Sheffield - but we have highly trained volunteers and an extensive fleet of ambulance vehicles across the country, used regularly to support NHS ambulance services during both routine work and periods of high demand."
:: Your experiences of A&E
The first set of weekly figures of 2015 show that for "type 1" major A&E departments, just 79.8% of patients were seen within four hours.
A total of 407,239 patients attended A&E in the week to January 4, up 20,000 from the same period last year.
NHS England said an extra £700m investment over winter had brought in 700 more doctors, 4,500 nurses and more than 5,000 additional beds.
David Cameron said: "This winter the NHS faced its challenges with more money, more nurses and more doctors than ever before.
"But that is only a short-term answer. The medium- and long-term answer has got to be about making it easier to see your GP and services in your community
"We now have seven million people who have seven-day access to a GP."
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt wrote on Twitter: "A&Es continued to face huge pressure this week. Appeal to everyone to get behind amazing NHS staff & support their sterling efforts 4 patients."
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
A&E Waiting Times Up As Red Cross Drafted In
Dengan url
http://hajimabruroh.blogspot.com/2015/01/a-waiting-times-up-as-red-cross-drafted.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
A&E Waiting Times Up As Red Cross Drafted In
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
A&E Waiting Times Up As Red Cross Drafted In
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar