Two patients die at the same A&E in ONE week as patient number hike causes a third of English hospital trusts to issue urgent warnings last month
NHS on the brink of a winter crisis after 50 of 153 English hospital trusts called for help in the run-up to Christmas
TWO patients are reported to have died in the same accident and emergency department this week as new figures showed a THIRD of trusts in England warned that they needed extra help in order to cope.
At Worcestershire Royal Hospital's A&E in the last week one female patient died after suffering an aneurysm, and another passed away after waiting 35 hours for a bed after a cardiac arrest.
The news comes as fresh figures reveal the true crisis in the nation's health service.
Fifty of the 152 hospital trusts said they were at the highest levels of pressure in December after a larger than expected increase in patient numbers.
In the most severe cases, seven trusts declared the highest level of emergency 15 times throughout the month. They were forced to say they were unable to give patients comprehensive care and there was a chance they were putting them at risk.
And overflowing A&E departments were forced to shut their doors more than 140 times in the same period - a 63% rise on diverts from last year.
NHS officials say A&E diverts should only occur as a "last resort" and are put in place when A&E departments cannot cope with any more patients.
Instead, patients are sent to other hospitals for treatment.
The latest data showed there were 42 diverts over Christmas week (week ending January 1) - the highest on record. This compares with about 20 diverts on average over a typical winter week of the NHS.
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The rise in the number of patients coming to hospitals meant operations had to be cancelled and patients were left waiting on trolleys.
And the worst could be yet to come, warned Nigel Edwards, the chief executive of the Nuffield Trust, who carried out the research.
“The real crunch point generally comes in week two or three after the Christmas break … there are early signs that there is a problem,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
The worst affected areas were in Berkshire, the West Country, and parts of the east Midlands, but increased demand was seen across the country.
Dr Taj Hassan, President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine said this morning that emergency rooms and hospitals "are in an absolute acute state of distress."
He went on to say that all independent metrics showed that the four hour target for a patient to be seen in an Accident & Emergency unit were at "their worst in 15 years".
"This is on a background of chronic under-funding, under-staffing, both in health and social care, and failures in the emergency care system," he said.
He said hospitals had entered this winter in "the worst state of affairs possible" and doctors had previously predicted that there would be more demand in December.
But a spokesperson for NHS England said that "tried and tested plans" were "managing" the pressures.
"Going into the new year, the public can play their part by avoiding going to A&E unless it is an emergency and using local pharmacies and NHS 111 for medical advice."
Lib Dem leader Tim Farron slammed the figures and said that it was clear that the NHS needed more funding.
He said: "Every year, our overstretched and underfunded NHS and care systems face unsustainable pressure in the winter months.
"Hospitals become dangerously over-crowded, staff are put under impossible pressure and some of the most vulnerable patients are caused terrible and unnecessary distress. The Government must be honest with people. The NHS needs more money."
The Liberal Democrats also warned today that delays in mental health patients being discharged from hospital had soared over the past year, due to a lack of community support.
An NHS analysis showed that 17,509 bed days were lost due to late discharge in NHS mental health trusts in October 2016, a rise of over 50% on the year before.
Lib Dem health spokesperson Norman Lamb said it was a "hidden scandal".
"The knock-on effect is that patients needing inpatient care are sent out of their area because there are no beds available - an outrageous practice which is associated with an increased risk of suicide. This is intolerable."