Jeremy Hunt to make an emergency statement on the NHS

The four-hour waiting target at NHS AE departments could be scrapped for non-urgent cases, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt signaled today.

He admitted some NHS hospitals are currently facing ‘very serious problems’ due to the sharp rise in the number of people attending AE. 

Mr Hunt pleaded with the public to stay away from AE unless they had genuine emergencies. Hospitals say three in ten visits to AE departments in England are not emergencies. 

Mr Hunt also hinted at a root and branch review of how NHS England operates AE departments. 

The four-hour waiting target at NHS AE departments will be scrapped for non-urgent cases, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt signaled today

He told MPs in an emergency statement today: ‘It is clear that we need to have an honest discussion with the public about the purpose of AE departments.’ 

But despite hospitals reporting unprecedented demand for services and two deaths in Worcestershire AE last week, Mr Hunt rejected claims the NHS is in ‘crisis.’

It led shadow health Jon Ashworth to accuse him of living in ‘la la land’. He said Mr Hunt and No 10 were to blame for the ‘winter crisis’ in the NHS and said they made a ‘monumental error’ to ignore calls for extra support for social care last year. 

Mr Ashworth demanded the Government brings forward the extra £700million allocated for 2019 and spend it now. 

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Mr Hunt admitted that ‘one or two’ hospitals have been under severe pressure and repeatedly urged the public to stay away from AE departments unless they have a genuine emergency. 

The situation is ‘extremely fragile’ at a number of trusts, Mr Hunt said – in particular at the Worcestershire Royal hospital – where two patients died while in AE last week – and services have also been severely affected in the north Midlands.  

Mr Hunt blamed the ‘unprecedented’ demand for AE on an ageing population, increased life expectancy and ‘higher consumer expectations’ over what patients want from the NHS. 

Hinting at a root and branch review of AE in NHS England, Jeremy Hunt told MPs in an emergency Commons statement today: ‘It is clear that we need to have an honest discussion with the public about the purpose of AE departments.’

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, pictured left speaking to ITV Good Morning Britain presenters Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid today, said ‘one or two’ hospitals have been under severe pressure and repeatedly urged the public to stay away from AE departments unless they have a genuine emergency

More hospitals reported long waiting lists at AE departments today, including Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust

Some hospitals have reported AE attendances of up to 30 per cent higher than last year and the Tuesday after Christmas was the busiest day in the history of the NHS. 

As a result NHS England has hired an extra 1,600 more doctors and 3,000 more nurses since last year. 

Hinting that the four-hour target for treating non-urgent cases at AE could be scrapped, Mr Hunt said: ‘This government is committed to maintaining and delivering that vital four-hour commitment to patients. 

‘But since it was announced in 2000 there are nearly 9million more visits to our AEs, up to 30 per cent of whom NHS England estimate do not need to be there. And the tide is continuing to rise.

‘So, if we are going to protect our four-hour standard, we need to be clear it is a promise to sort out all urgent health problems within four hours, but not all health problems, however minor.’

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, pictured on ITV today, will deliver an emergency statement to MPs in the Commons today 

He added: ‘As Prof Keith Willett, NHS England’s medical director for acute care has said, no country in the world has a standard for all health problems, however small, and if we are to protect services for the most vulnerable, nor can we.

‘So NHS England and NHS Improvement will continue to explore ways to ensure that at least some of the patients who do not need to be in our AEs can be given good alternative options, building on progress underway with the streaming policy in the NHS England AE plan. 

‘This way we will be able to improve the patient experience for those with more minor conditions who are currently not seen within four hours, as well as protect the four-hour promise for those who actually need it.’

Earlier today Mr Hunt rejected claims by the Red Cross charity that the NHS is facing a ‘humanitarian crisis’. 

He told the public to listen to people such as Chris Hopson, head of NHS Providers, who has rejected the claim and said it was not an ‘appropriate description’. 

Prime Minister Theresa May also rejected this claim yesterday.

Mike Adamson, chief executive of the charity, insisted the phrase was justified by the scale of the ‘threat’ posed to the nation’s health and wellbeing by pressures on the system.

Despite hospitals reporting unprecedented demand for services and two deaths in Worcestershire AE last week, Mr Hunt rejected claims the NHS is in ‘crisis,’ leading shadow health Jon Ashworth, pictured, to accuse him of living in ‘la la land’

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, pictured on Sky News today, will make an emergency statement on the NHS in the Commons this afternoon but rejected claims by the Red Cross that it is facing a ‘humanitarian crisis’

Jeremy Hunt, pictured left on ITV’s Good Morning Britain show with presenters Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid, dismissed claims the NHS is facing a ‘humanitarian crisis’ 

In an article for The Times, he said there has been a ‘significant change’ in demand for the Red Cross’s help in recent months and the charity is now working in 20 AE departments.

Mr Hunt rejected the claim, telling the BBC: ‘I don’t want to pretend that we haven’t – at this most difficult time of the year for the NHS – had some very serious problems in some hospitals.

‘I think we need to listen to independent people like Chris Hopson – no friend of the Government when it comes to NHS policy, he speaks for all hospitals in the NHS – who rejects this idea…he says that the vast majority of hospitals are actually coping slightly better than this time last year. 

‘We have about 2,000 more doctors than we had a year ago, about 3,000 more nurses.’

Mr Hunt said one of the reasons some hospitals had 100 per cent of their beds in use rather than the recommended 85 per cent was ‘because the NHS has sometimes decommissioned beds without making alternative provision in the community’.

He added the Government was putting £4 billion more this year into the NHS to transform care. But he also blamed ‘higher consumer expectations’ over what they want from the NHS.

He said people needed to remember that AE departments ‘do what they say on the tin’, adding ‘they are for accidents and emergencies and around 40 per cent of people in AE departments don’t actually need the care of an AE and we need to find other ways to look after their needs’.

Demands for extra NHS spending have grown since after reports of two patients dying on trolleys at the Worcestershire Royal Hospital 

Theresa May, in her first TV interview of the year, yesterday rejected a Red Cross claim the NHS is facing a ‘humanitarian crisis’

Mr Hunt also insisted problems in AE are not just a funding issue.

‘If we made the debate just about money, we’d miss a trick. It’s not just about funding, it’s about standards, it’s about quality of care.

‘We actually spend a little bit more than the average for rich countries on our health services but we still have 150 avoidable deaths in our hospitals every week we still have weekend provision that’s not as good in some places as it could be.’

Asked on Good Morning Britain about people waiting for hours on trolleys in AE departments, Mr Hunt said: ‘Well these problems are totally unacceptable. This is the most difficult time for the NHS in the year, it always is very difficult after the Christmas period when GP surgeries are not open over the actual days of Christmas and then they re-open and then a lot of people get sent to hospital.’

He added: ‘I have said there are some very severe problems in some hospitals, but we also have to listen to people like Chris Hopson who represents all the hospitals in Britain, no friend of the Government when it comes to NHS policy, who says that there is not a generalised crisis. The vast majority of hospitals are actually coping slightly better.’

He went on: ‘Well the situation as of this weekend is that things have eased significantly and the reports that we’re getting back from the front line is that the number of people waiting for too long on trolleys has reduced to a handful now so it’s much, much lower than it was a week earlier.

‘This is always the busiest week but we need to work with the public to understand that accident and emergency departments are there for what is says on the tin, for accidents and emergencies.’

Asked what humanitarian crisis means to him, he said: ‘What it means to me is terrible problems that we see in other parts of the world and independent people are saying that is not an appropriate description. 

‘What is fair and what we have to deal with is the fact that we had some very serious problems in one or two hospitals and I wouldn’t minimise those at all.’ 

QA: WHY ARE SENIOR DOCTORS WARNING OF A CRISIS IN AE?  

Official data shows that AE departments are struggling to cope with demand and are continuing to fail to meet the target of dealing with patients within four hours of arrival.

Doctors say this could lead to unsafe practices as departments are overflowing.

Figures out on Friday showed that NHS 111 had its busiest week ever in the week ending January 1, with 457,000 patients calling the helpline.

The number of hospital beds which had to be closed was double that of the previous year owing to levels of norovirus.

Throughout December, AE departments shut their doors to new patients more than 140 times, a 63% rise on the 88 recorded the previous year.

NHS guidance says such ‘AE diverts’ should only occur as a last resort and are put in place when AE departments cannot cope with any more patients.

Last week, it emerged that two patients died on trolleys in Worcestershire Royal Hospital’s AE department during a period described as extremely busy by the hospital.

Why is the Red Cross involved?

The Red Cross has a history of helping the NHS in times of need, such as transporting patients home from hospital.

But on Friday it warned of a ‘humanitarian crisis’ in the NHS, saying there had been a marked increase in demand for its service and it was working in 20 AE departments.

Writing in The Times, Mike Adamson, the charity’s chief executive, said the phrase was justified by the scale of the ‘threat’ posed to the nation’s health and wellbeing.

He said: ‘We see people discharged from hospital to chaotic situations at home, falling and not being found for hours, not being washed because there is no carer to help them.

‘These are people in crisis and in recent weeks we have started talking about this as a humanitarian crisis. We don’t say this lightly and we have a duty to say it.’

What do doctors say?

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine is warning that AE departments are unsafe.

Its audit of 60 AE departments showed that 77.62% of patients were seen within the four-hour target last week – the worst performance in the two years the audit has run.

It said the figures showed an ’emergency medicine system in crisis’.

Dr Mark Holland, president of the Society for Acute Medicine, has also warned of a large-scale crisis.

He has said: ‘We have got to the point where the efforts of staff to prop up the system are no longer enough to keep the system afloat.

‘We are asking NHS staff to provide a world-class service, but with third world levels of staffing and third world levels of beds.’

What does the Government say?  

Prime Minister Theresa May has rejected claims from the Red Cross that there is a ‘humanitarian crisis’.

While she acknowledged there were ‘huge pressures’ on the health service, she said the Government had provided the funding requested last year.

Mrs May told Sky News that funding was ‘now at record levels for the NHS’.

On Monday morning, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said there were problems in some hospitals and urged people not to go to AE unless there was an emergency.

But he said many people at top of NHS bodies rejected the claim there was a general crisis in AE departments.