The terrible consequences of the lack of front line NHS capacity, in both elective emergency services, is taking a heavy toll according to recent research.
At the end of August a Labour Party analysis showed a massive 120,000 people had died while on the waiting list for NHS treatment last year (2022/23) – double the equivalent number five years earlier. Among the more tragic examples were 3,615 deaths of waiting list patients at London’s Royal Free Hospital, with 2,888 in Morecambe Bay hospitals and 2,039 in Leeds.
The figures, which have been found to be sound by Full Fact are calculated from the results from the 35 trusts which responded to Labour’s survey of 138 acute trusts.
But they have been criticised by NHS England, which argues that the “does not demonstrate a link between waits for elective treatment and deaths, and … the data does not include the cause of death or any further details on the person’s age and medical conditions.”
This objection would be more credible if NHS England itself published data on deaths on waiting lists drawing on a wider if not a full response from acute trusts – and possibly also mental health trusts.
Meanwhile the ill-effects of chronic delays in emergency care also depend upon analysis by another external body, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine.
Full story in The Lowdown, 1 October 2023