Nearly £450m is being invested in the NHS in England to cut hospital waiting times and tackle persistently failing trusts, the health secretary has announced.
Wes Streeting says his NHS reforms aim to deliver around 40 new centres to fast-track treatment for patients, up to 15 mental health crisis assessment units and almost 500 new ambulances.
It is part of an attempt to shift patients away from A&E and avoid unnecessary hospital admissions.
“No patient should ever be left waiting for hours in hospital corridors or for an ambulance which ought to arrive in minutes,” said Mr Streeting.
“The package of investment and reforms we are announcing today will help the NHS treat more patients in the community, so they don’t end up stuck on trolleys in A&E,” he added.
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In an example of the challenge facing the health secretary, Sky News on Wednesday revealed the scale of England’s mental health crisis, exacerbated by a shortage of specialist beds and an overwhelmed social care network.
The new Urgent and Emergency Care Plan for England says more needs to be done to drive down long waits, cut delayed discharges and improve care for patients.
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The document requires Trusts to reduce the number of patients waiting over 12 hours and make progress on “eliminating corridor care”. It is estimated “over 800,000 people a month will receive more timely care”.
A&E league tables published
A&E “league tables” will be published to drive up performance, including driving down delayed discharges from hospital. This can often impact elderly people when they are fit to leave but have additional care needs which require the involvement of social care teams.
The plan also sets out aims to cut ambulance waiting times for category 2 patients – like those suffering stroke, heart attack, sepsis or major trauma – from 35 to 30 minutes. A previous target of 18 minutes has been repeatedly missed.
Trusts have also been told to tackle lengthy ambulance handover delays by meeting a maximum 45-minute target for patients to enter A&E.
The aim is to avoid a repeat of a crisis last winter when patients were waiting hours for beds and regularly being treated in corridors – so-called corridor care.
Among the other plans revealed by NHS England are: virtual wards, where patients are monitored by hospital staff from their home, and a greater role for paramedics and urgent community response teams to treat people in the community to avoid hospital admission.
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Some reforms ‘lack ambition’
Royal College of Emergency Medicine president Dr Adrian Boyle accepted the plan had “some good and some bad” points but also that NHS England had acknowledged “the shameful situation being experienced by patients and clinicians across the country’s emergency departments”.
In a statement, Mr Boyle said: “Some parts lack ambition – for example accepting that 10% of people will face A&E waits of more than 12 hours, when no patient should.
“Also maintaining the four-hour standard at 78% when the stated aim is that 95% of patients should move through the emergency department within this time – something which hasn’t happened for a decade.”
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Association of Ambulance Chief Executives managing director Anna Parry said: “Handover delays have the greatest detrimental impact on ambulance resources and create unnecessary delays and additional harm for thousands of patients each year.
“The elimination of corridor care and the focus on reducing 12-hour waits at emergency departments is also welcomed.”
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The Liberal Democrats broadly welcomed the plans but called on ministers to follow through on their promises.
“Patients have heard these kinds of promises before only to be led up the garden path,” said Lib Dem health spokesperson Helen Morgan MP.
“The misery in our A&Es will only be prolonged if they continue to move at a snail’s pace on social care,” she added.
