Health Foundation responds to NHS winter performance statistics

Responding to the publication of NHS England’s combined monthly performance statistics for November, Tim Gardner, Senior Policy Fellow at the Health Foundation, said:

'The NHS has begun this winter in a worse position than at any time over the last five years. The numbers of people waiting in A&E for more than 4 hours, waiting for a bed and experiencing a delayed discharge were all at their highest for any November since 2011.

'NHS nurses, doctors and managers are working extremely hard to ensure that a lack of capacity, pressure on beds and potential problems with care are identified early and averted. These pressures are chipping away at the morale and resilience of NHS staff before winter has really set in.

'The NHS is being squeezed between rising cost pressures and an underfunded social care system that is reaching breaking point. The priority now is for local services across health and social care to be given the support and resources they need to work together to cope with growing pressures to provide efficient, effective care. The government needs to act quickly and decisively to fund the gap in social care – this is a problem that cannot be kicked into the long grass.'

Media contact

Creina Lilburne
creina.lilburne@health.org.uk
020 7257 8027

Additional information

The charts below show the growing pressures on the NHS at the beginning of winter (data point is November in each year).