The number of people waiting more than four hours to be seen in England’s A&E departments has soared to a record high.
For the first time on record more than one in five people who visited NHS hospitals in December were not seen within the target time.
This worked out as a total of 396,762 people waiting longer, which was almost 40,000 more than in November and was the highest number on record.
The shameful statistic comes just two months after data for October, when 83.6 per cent of patients were seen in time, showed that that month had been the worst month so far.
The figure has now plunged to just 79.8 per cent, sinking below 80 for the first time.
Another sign of immense pressure on A&E departments comes in data showing ambulance delays were last week the worst they have been in at least two years.
The first week of 2020 saw almost one in five ambulance patients (18 per cent, equal to 18,000 people) wait more than half an hour to be handed over to hospital staff.
NHS statistics published this morning showed there were a total of 2.1million visits to accident and emergency departments in December but only 1.56million patients were seen within the target four hours (stock image)
NHS statistics published this morning showed there were a total of 2.1million visits to accident and emergency departments in December, the highest in five months.
The NHS rules that all patients must be seen within four hours of arriving, but this was only the case for 1.56million of those patients.
Data also showed that, last week, a total of 12,824 people arriving at A&E by ambulance had to wait between 30 minutes and an hour to be handed over to hospital staff, while another 5,247 waited for more than an hour.
Patients should be taken away from ambulance crews within a quarter of an hour but overloaded A&E departments mean they must stay with them until a bed is free.
Last week’s statistic is significantly higher than in any other single week during the winters of 2017 and 2018, and the third week of December was almost as bad.
The Acute Society of Medicine, which represents hospital staff across the country, said the health service is facing an unprecedented challenge.
Its president, Dr Susan Crossland, said: ‘We can honestly say that acute care is facing pressures the like of which we have never seen.
‘And the huge jump in patients waiting more than 12 hours should be of serious concern to the government.
‘Almost 100,000 patients waited more than four hours [before being admitted to hospital] – almost double that of last month.
‘For the first time, the standard was met for [fewer than] 80 per cent of patients and the inexorable decline in trusts meeting the standard adds more pressure onto the morale of healthcare professional struggling to do their very best for patients.’
December saw a record high number of category 1 ambulance call-outs – the most serious emergency – with almost 10,000 people needing urgent help.
And the number of ambulance arrivals at emergency departments was also at its highest level ever at an average of 14,480 every day across England.
One expert warned that proper winter weather, which is known to make people more ill, hasn’t even started yet.
Professor John Appleby, economist at the think-tank the Nuffield Trust, said: ‘These would be dire performance figures for any December but what’s worrying is that we are still awaiting the truly cold winter weather that we know will plunge the NHS into further problems.
‘Once a rare and almost unthinkable event, in December over two thousand people waited more than 12 hours on a trolley to be admitted to a bed on a hospital ward.
‘Missed targets are now the norm… this pressure is spreading out across the entire system.’
Professor Stephen Powis, the NHS’s medical director, said: ‘A&Es across the country are currently very busy – in 2019 we treated over a million more patients in our A&Es than the previous year.
‘We have got more hospital beds open than last winter, but flu has come early and is around twice as high as this time last year.
‘For the public there is still time to get your flu jab, and remember to use the free NHS 111 phone and online service and your local pharmacist.’