Health Foundation responds to NHS performance stats

NHS England has today (Thursday 14 April 2016) released the latest monthly hospital activity statistics, marking the end of the winter period.

Dr Jennifer Dixon, Chief Executive of the Health Foundation, comments: 'Despite a mild winter, the NHS is facing mounting pressure, contributing to deteriorating performance in a number of key measures as today’s NHS England’s figures show. Of particular concern is the nearly fourfold increase, compared to five years ago, in emergency patients waiting more than four hours for a hospital bed after a decision to admit them to A&E.

'This deterioration is occurring even though the NHS has incredibly hard working staff: performance against the A&E target has fallen to an all-time low since 2010; the vital 62 day cancer target is still not being met; and delayed transfers have gone up substantially.

'In the last three months, delays in social care provision were the fastest growing cause of people not being able to leave hospital. This contributes to a backlog of patients in A&E, and longer waiting for non-emergency care as beds are filled with patients with delayed discharges.

'The root cause of deteriorating performance is an unprecedented slowdown in funding for the NHS – now halfway through the most austere decade of funding growth since records began in 1948 – and severe cuts to social care, impacting specifically older people. Providers are struggling to accommodate this slowdown because of the sheer pace and scale of changes required. Today’s performance figures, while worrying, are entirely predictable.'

Media Contact

For more details contact Mike Findlay on 020 7257 4047 or email: mike.findlay@health.org.uk.