- Tory cuts blamed for inability to see 95 per cent of patients within four hours
- The target – not met since 2015 – has been axed until next year by health chiefs
- They told hospitals to see 90 per cent of patients in four hours by September
- Labour say the decision is a clear admission Tories are not funding NHS enough
Health chiefs have scrapped A&E waiting time targets as NHS bosses claim government cuts make them impossible to meet.
Tory cuts have been blamed for an inability to see 95 per cent of patients within four hours – a target not met since 2015.
The target is being postponed until April next year, with the NHS Confederation calling on the government to rethink.
Health bosses at NHS England have suspended the target until April next year after not meeting it since 2015
In today’s Daily Mirror the group warns: ‘It will be an immense task just to stabilise the service. We repeat our call for the Government to tackle health funding.’
Saffron Cordery, director at NHS Providers, says the axing of the target is the first time they have been forced to accept the service can’t ‘meet its key constitutional standards’.
She said performance cannot be improved against the four-hour target and spoke of the need to focus on a ‘long-term financial settlement’.
Labour MP for Leicester South Jonathan Ashworth said: ‘The fact bosses are admitting the A&E target won’t be met for over a year is the clearest admission the Tories have failed to give the NHS the funding it needs.’
Today a planning document for NHS England told hospitals to try and see 90 per cent of patients within four hours by September this year.
Labour MP Jonathan Ashworth said the suspension was a clear admission Conservatives aren’t giving the NHS the funding it needs
It instructed them to meet the benchmark 90 per cent by April 2019, adding ‘contract sanctions for performance standards are currently suspended’.
If A&Es meet the target, NHS England has promised to give £540million in funding to the departments across the country.
Last year NHS England boss Simon Stevens said waiting times would have to be axed because of funding issues.
The Conservatives gave £1.6billion of the £4billion extra the service required but the Department of Health and Social Care declared it was ‘committed to giving the NHS the resources it needs’.