What is the current NHS wait time?
Posted on 26th February 2020
Research carried out by the BBC has revealed that patients admitted to hospital with serious illness or injury can take many hours to actually find a bed, with 25% on average spending four hours or more on trolleys or in corridors. Admission in these figures include those taken by ambulance, some of whom took over 30 minutes before hospital staff could even take them off the hands of paramedics.
One patient, aged 93, with a suspected broken hip spent six hours on a trolley, with the paramedics who brought her in, before being found a bed at London’s Hillingdon Hospital last month.
Significant waiting time is not a new phenomenon but it does appear to becoming much more prevalent as the NHS becomes more stretched. The Royal College of Nursing has reported that some hospitals are now some over-stretched that nurses are specifically assigned to work in corridors to provide oxygen and anti-biotic drips to those who have not yet found a bed. At MG Legal, your local medical negligence solicitor in Preston, we have already seen the impact of the lack of staff and beds and we have successfully pursued negligence claims for patients injured or whose illness has been exacerbated as a result.
A great concern is not just that the NHS appears to be coping less well as time passes, with serious cuts occurring over past years and building of new hospitals behind schedule, with the gradual increase in Coronavirus reports, if there is an increase in infections in the UK, hospitals may not be able to cope
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The World Health Association has cautioned all governments across the world to prepare for a pandemic (a serious international outbreak of any given illness) and whilst the current advice for anyone who believes they have contracted Coronavirus is to self-isolate and the phone 111, hospitals have been told to set up ‘isolation pods’ in case people do attend hospital with the virus.
Whilst there have only been 13 confirmed Coronavirus cases in the UK, the scale of international travel means that it is unlikely this will be the total number of cases. Some experts point to the Swine Flu epidemic of ten years ago as evidence that the NHS could cope with an unexpected, large-scale illness, but with many others warning that there is little spare of time, staff or beds to deal with any larger outbreak, this is not an eventuality that anyone would like to see occur.
Ultimately, we all rely on the NHS and there is no government rebate on our taxes if the service is not up to standard. Every time you are treated by a medical professional, you are owed a duty of care and it is expected that your treatment will meet a certain standard. MG Legal, your local medical negligence solicitor, are experts in assessing when your care has not met that standard and pursuing a claim for damages against the negligent party. Medical negligence not only causes injury but can regularly cause other losses such as lost earnings, costs of care, transport and medication costs.
So, whether you have been improperly diagnosed, left without the right level of care, treated incorrectly or simply not seen the right medical practitioner, you would be able to pursue a medical negligence claim. MG Legal, your local medical negligence solicitors, aim to accept all medical negligence cases on a Conditional Fee Agreement (no win, no fee agreement) to ensure you have the access to representation for your medical negligence claim. If you believe that your medical treatment has not been up to a proper standard, contact MG Legal at our offices in Lancaster, Garstang or Longridge and we will put you in touch with one of our medical negligence claims team the same day.
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