The full extent of the NHS winter crisis was revealed today as figures showed that every health trust in London missed the key four-hour A&E target in December.
One of the capital’s biggest trusts, King’s College Hospital Trust, saw its performance dip to 75 per cent — making it one of the worst in the country. North Middlesex and Hillingdon were also below 80 per cent.
The target is for 95 per cent of patients to be admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours.
Only two trusts in England hit the target — Luton and Dunstable and Dorset County. Epsom and St Helier trust was the capital’s best performer, at 94.1 per cent.
Today’s NHS England figures came as leaked documents indicated that only 82 per cent of patients were treated within four hours across England last month; the “worst ever” performance since it was introduced 13 years ago.
Record numbers — more than 60,000 patients — were left waiting on trolleys for between four to 12 hours to be admitted to a ward.
Seven hundred and eighty patients waited in excess of 12 hours — more than four times the number of those delayed a year earlier.
The figures sparked calls from the British Medical Association for Prime Minister Theresa May to stop “burying her head in the sand” and tackle the unprecedented crisis that has hit the NHS.
Full story in The Evening Standard, 9 February 2017