Jeremy Hunt admits some NHS care is ‘completely unacceptable’ as overwhelmed A&Es and bed-blocking lead to warnings of crisis point
PERFORMANCE in some parts of the overwhelmed NHS is "completely unacceptable", Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt admitted today.
He said there was "no excuse" for some of the problems faced by patients over the winter and accepted some of the care being offered was not what anyone would want for their own family.
The Health Secretary was speaking after BBC footage showed patients brought in by ambulance have to queue on trolleys to get into A&E at the overwhelmed Royal Blackburn Hospital.
Nationwide figures emerged showing the number of A&E patients seen within the four hour target fell to a record low of 86 per cent in December, while 60,000 sick people waited longer than 12 hours on trolleys or chairs to get a bed, another record.
The number of people waiting more than two months to start cancer treatment after an urgent referral was at a record high of 25,157, and the proportion of patients receiving hospital treatment within 18 weeks fell below 90 per cent for the first time since 2011.
Hospitals are struggling to cope with rising demand from an ageing populationSpeaking to the BBC, Mr Hunt said there was already a "big transformation programme" under way in the NHS with the aim of treating more people at home or in the community to ease burdens on hospitals.
But he conceded that the changes would take time and said progress had been "disappointingly slow" in some areas.
He said: "It is incredibly frustrating for me. I am doing this job because I want NHS care to be the safest and best in the world.
"That kind of care is completely unacceptable. No one would want it for members of their own family."
He said there were "no excuses" for cases such as 89-year-old Iris Sibley, who was stuck on a hospital ward at Bristol Royal Infirmary for more than six months because a nursing home place could not be found for her.
A hospital bed costs taxpayers around £400 a night, far higher than a care home.
Mr Hunt said: "It is terrible for Mrs Sibley but it is also very bad for the NHS."
He insisted the Government was addressing problems in the social care system which are preventing many elderly and frail patients from being discharged from hospital - so-called "bed-blocking".
The Health Secretary said: "The Prime Minister has been very clear. We recognise the pressure's there. We recognise there is a problem about the sustainability of the social care system.
"That has to be addressed and we are going to do that."
Barrister Sir Robert Francis QC, whose 2013 report uncovered poor care in Mid Staffordshire, said the NHS was facing an "existential crisis" and another similar scandal was "inevitable".
He said: "Let's make no bones about it, the NHS is facing an existential crisis.
"The service is running faster and faster to try and keep up and is failing, manifestly failing.
"The danger is that we reach a tipping point; we haven't reached it yet, but there will come a point where public confidence in the service dissipates."
Sir Robert, a non-executive director at the Care Quality Commission, told the Health Service Journal there was an "increasing disconnect" between what is said nationally about the NHS and "what people on the ground feel or see is going on".
Earlier this week a BBC report from the Royal Blackburn Hospital - rated one of the best in the country - struggling to cope with the huge number of patients arriving in A&E.
It showed a mum sitting on the floor to feed her baby, elderly patients waiting on trolleys, and staff close to tears with only enough beds for a third of the patients who needed them.