By stewartb

Yet another ‘credible’ health body takes aim at Labour’s manifesto!

In two recent press statements on A&E waiting times performance, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) noted:

In May 2024, 10% of patients attending A&E in England spent 12 hour or longer there = 145,094 patients (statement issued on 13 June)

In April 2024, 5.7% of patients attending A&E in Scotland spent 12 hours or more there = 6,412 patients (statement issued on 4 June).

This marked difference in the percentage of patients experiencing long stays in A&E – demonstrating the much better (whilst still not good enough) situation in Scotland – is a long-standing one. The substantially better performance by NHS Scotland is never explicitly acknowledged by the RCEM and never mentioned by the BBC or others in the mainstream media.

In the same statement of 4 June, the RCEM seems to agree with the Wes Streeting acceptance that on NHS resourcing in all parts of the UK all roads lead to Westminster. The RCEM’s statement has this (with my emphasis):

“The crisis in our (A&) departments continues and whoever forms the next Westminster Government must be pragmatic, proactive and provide adequate resources so the devolved governments including here in Scotland can really address this issue.’ Seems like a clear acknowledgement that Westminster has been failing adequately to resource the NHS in NI, Scotland and Wales!

Then, in the RCEM’s statement of 13 June, we find this critique of the Labour and Tory manifestoes:

‘Patient safety is being ignored by politicians. This is the response from The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) as party manifestos fail to give much detail on urgent and emergency care in their pledges.‘

Adding: ‘In his speech responding to the announcement of a general election in July, leader of the Labour party Sir Keir Starmer highlighted the sad reality of people being treated on trolleys in A&E due to hospital overcrowding.  

‘However, reducing ambulance handover delays and extreme A&E waits are not clearly listed in the (Labour) party’s health priorities in their manifesto released today – Thursday 13 June.’  

And on the Tories: ‘The Conservative party manifesto released on Tuesday made only a loose reference “improvements” in Emergency Care.’  

Reflecting on both manifestoes: ‘RCEM has called this a “serious omission” and has called for greater clarity in how parties would tackle extended A&E wait times, were they to gain power. ‘ 

Dr Adrian Boyle, President of RCEM said: “The lack of focus on extremely long waits in A&E are a serious omission in protecting public health and are frankly very disappointing.  

“We have long campaigned to raise awareness of the dangers of extremely long A&E waits for patients, particularly the older and more vulnerable. Long waits resulted in 267 excess deaths each week in 2023. How this is not a priority for those in power is very difficult to understand.  

“We do welcome the acknowledgement of the need for a more joined up working between the health and social care sectors. This would be essential in improving discharge rates and ensuring the safe movement of people through the hospital system.  However, we urgently ask for more clarity in ensuring exactly how the next government, whoever this may be, will reduce the extended A&E wait times that are currently being endured by an exhausted workforce and patients who deserve far better.”  

There is a pattern here: Labour good at giving out the warm, aspirational words whilst failing to spell out the how, the when and with what additional resources! And an uncritical BBC and mainstream media in Scotland enables Labour to get away with this.

Taking on board the RCEM’s statements – together with those from the Nuffield Trust, the Kings Fund, the Health Foundation, the Institute for Government, the Institute for Fiscal Studies reported in the main blog post – why waste a vote in Scotland on Labour?

On the RCEM’s point concerning the ‘exhausted workforce’ recall this from the Nuffield Trust on Labour’s plan to reduce waiting times for elective treatments in NHS England noted in the main blog post: “The promise of 40,000 additional appointments to improve waiting times is ambitious but getting more weekend and evenings shifts out of exhausted staff will be hard.’ And similarly, from the Health Foundation on Labour’s manifesto: ‘Labour’s plans to drive down NHS waiting times are ambitious, but achieving this will be an extremely tall order, particularly given that they appear to rely on asking already exhausted staff to work overtime.’

Time for trade unions representing staff working for NHS England to ‘gird their loins’?