By Sickest patients face long waits for hospital beds
The sickest patients in England are facing long waits for hospital beds recently, with January breaking records for waiting times.
NHS data has revealed that a third of A&E patients (122,000 people) who needed treatment on wards waited for over four hours last month, a record high.
16,500 of them reportedly waited for hospital beds for over 12 hours, with many patients stuck on trolleys in corridors or in A&E bays as wards were full, the BBC reported.
The current situation may be putting patients at risk, doctors fear.
Cancer waiting times have also broken records as only two-thirds of patients started treatment within the recommended two months following an urgent referral from their GPs.
The news comes after it was revealed that six million people are currently on hospital waiting lists.
Ministers have set out a recovery plan which should tackle the backlog in treatments, but it could still take at least two more years before cases start to fall.
Wales and Northern Ireland are facing even worse struggles than England in many ways.
The long waits for hospital beds are subsequently starting to affect patient care all across the UK.
Longer waiting times for hospital beds means that patients’ health can deteriorating to a point where they then need emergency treatment.
Doctors hope that the easing pressures from Covid admissions will help move things in the right direction.
The number of patients in England’s hospitals that have Covid now stands at just over 11,000, down 5,000 people since early January.
This still proves a problem for the NHS as around one in nine beds are occupied by Covid patients.
However, half of these patients were admitted due to their need for treatment in other areas.
