UK Health Radio – Medical News Update on the Hour - As Winter Bites, the NHS starts to crack.

UK Health Radio – Medical News Update on the Hour

As Winter Bites, the NHS starts to crack.

The BBC have reported that A&E units across the UK are struggling to hit their waiting time targets as the first icy blast of winter hits, according to the latest figures.

Demands on the NHS always do increase during the colder months because of illnesses like the flu and norovirus. But with winter just getting under way, pressures are already reaching record levels.

Extra money is being invested in each nation, but the four-hour A&E waiting time target is being missed everywhere.

The mounting problems come as the BBC launches its NHS Winter project  which tracks how the health service is performing down to individual hospital trust level.

As health is devolved, data is published differently in the four UK nations.

Hospitals in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are meant to see 95% of patients in four hours.

In England weekly figures are released. The latest, for the first week of December, show 91.8% of patients were seen in four hours - the worst performance since April 2013.

In Wales the data is published monthly with the figures from October showing just 84.7% of patients were seen in time - with one in 20 waiting more than eight hours.

Northern Ireland is performing even worse - just under 80% of patients were seen within four hours in October.

Scotland has a slightly tougher waiting time target - 98% of patients should be seen in four hours. In September under 94% were.

The simple answer to why service is deteriorating is that more people are visiting A&E units. This is true for each corner of the UK, but as the data is most up-to-date for England, it can be seen clearest there.

Visits to A&E topped 436,000 last week - that is nearly 30,000 more than the same week the year before.

But the nature of the conditions patients are presenting with also makes a difference.

The best indication of this is the numbers that need to be admitted into hospital as an emergency. They are the most complex cases that often take A&E staff the longest to deal with and lead to beds being occupied.

The numbers topped 110,000 last week - that is one of the highest figures ever recorded.

British Medical Association leader Dr Mark Porter said: "Pressure on NHS services is at a critical point and cracks are beginning to appear.

"While the NHS is used to seeing a spike in demand during winter months, this year emergency departments have experienced a spring, summer and autumn crisis as well, leaving no spare capacity in hospitals as we approach winter.

"At the same time, GP surgeries are struggling to cope with unprecedented levels of demand."

Amanda Thomas

UK Health Radio – Medical News Update on the Hour

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