'Medway A&E wait times through the roof with 560 patients waiting over 12 hours' - say local Lib Dems

New figures released on the 12/01/23 have revealed the extent of the NHS crisis in Medway. In Medway NHS Foundation Trust 1,217 people waited over 4 hours to be seen in December. Even more alarmingly, 560 waited over 12 hours to be seen in December during the winter crisis.

Meanwhile, the average ambulance response time for the most urgent incidents in South East Coast Ambulance Service was 11.2 mins in December - in excess of the NHS target of 7 minutes.

Response times for urgent conditions such as heart attacks and strokes are even longer. Ambulance response times in South East Ambulance Service for these Category 2 emergencies are now over three quarters of an hour, way above the 18-minute target.

The Liberal Democrats have set out a five-point plan to tackle the ambulance service crisis. The party is demanding the Government release the money they promised to help discharge patients from hospitals, as soon as possible.

John Castle, Medway Liberal Democrat candidate for St Mary's Island said: "The Government's failure to tackle the crisis in our NHS is letting down people in Medway and putting patients' lives at risk. How much more evidence do Ministers need? They either don't care or just can't grasp the scale of this problem. Unacceptable and heartbreaking delays mean the Government is falling far short even on its own targets.

Far too many people in Medway are having to wait far too long to get the treatment they need. In many cases, this is literally a matter of life or death. People in our area deserve far better. Our NHS isn't just at breaking point - it's splitting at its very seams. We need action from the Conservatives.

Liberal Democrats are demanding the Government release the money they promised to help discharge patients from hospitals, and launch a campaign to recruit the extra paramedics and ambulance staff we need."

ENDS

Notes to editors

Local Ambulance and A&E Wait Times: Ambulance and A&E Statistics - Dec 2022

Ambulance Crisis - 5 Point Winter Plan
Launch a campaign to retain, recruit and train paramedics and other ambulance service staff.
Bring forward a fully funded programme to get people who are medically well enough discharged from hospital and set up with appropriate social care and support.

In addition to getting people out of hospital so that they get care in a more comfortable setting, the number of beds in hospitals needs to be increased to end excessive handover delays for ambulances, caused by a lack of bed capacity.

Expand mental health support services to get people the appropriate care they need and reduce the number of call outs for ambulances for mental health reasons.

Pass Daisy Cooper MP's Ambulance Waiting Times Bill into law that would require accessible, localised reports of ambulance response times to be published. This would ensure that 'hot spots' with some of the longest waiting times can be identified routinely. 12 hour waits at A&E should also be published from arrival at hospital rather than the 'decision to admit' as is current practice, so that the true scale of the problem is clear for all to see.

Ambulance categories and targets

These figures refer to Category 1 incidents: An immediate response to a life threatening condition, such as cardiac or respiratory arrest. The NHS target is an average response time to these incidents of seven minutes, and for 90 per cent of them to be responded to within 15 minutes.
Source: Ambulance waiting times.

A&E targets

Four-hour A&E waiting time target is a pledge set out in the Handbook to the NHS Constitution. The operational standard is that at least 95 per cent of patients attending A&E should be admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours.
Source: A&E waiting times