NHS trusts in Merseyside are failing to meet key targets for ambulance and A&E waiting times.
Stroke victims wait more than an hour for ambulances that are stuck queuing outside emergency departments. People are lying in pain on hospital floors. Patients are being treated in corridors. The situation is so bad, an A&E doctor in Liverpool told the ECHO: "Accident and Emergency doesn't exist now, this isn't healthcare - it's a war zone and it's a lottery whether you will survive."
James Sumner, chief executive of Liverpool University Hospitals Foundation Trust, which runs the Royal Liverpool, Aintree and Broadgreen hospitals, admitted staff are "struggling day-to-day". In an update to board members, he wrote the Trust is "currently facing significant pressures in urgent and emergency care, across sites".
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Mr Sumner said "we know what the challenges are", he added: "This is impacted upon by the frequent delays facing us in safely discharging patients when they no longer need hospital treatment. This is a significant issue creating pressure on our A&Es."
All ambulance services in England, including the North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) failed to meet response time targets for category one and two calls in December, according to data analysis by the Reach Data Unit. Category one includes life threatening conditions like cardiac arrest, while category two includes serious conditions like strokes.
Three in four NHS trusts in England failed to meet A&E waiting time targets in December. And all but 13 of 168 trusts failed to meet their waiting list targets in November. The Reach Data Unit has compiled the data to allow you to see the situation at NHS trusts in your local area.
Ambulance waiting times
The NHS target for responding to a category one call is seven minutes. NWAS said it responded to them in an average of nine minutes and 58 seconds in December. This is lower than the English average of 10 minutes and 57 seconds.
The target for category two calls is 18 minutes. NWAS responded to them in an average of one hour and 12 minutes last month, which is again quicker than the English average of one hour and 32 minutes.
Category three includes urgent calls relating to things like diabetes and non-serious burns. In December, NWAS responded to these in an average of five hours and 16 minutes, almost an hour longer than the English average of four hours and 19 minutes.
For category four - less urgent calls including vomiting and diarrhoea - the response time was an average of six hours and 14 minutes. The national average was four hours and 35 minutes. An NWAS spokesperson said: "The ambulance service remains under extreme pressure, and December was the second busiest month of the year in terms of calls.
"However, our staff work hard every day to ensure everyone who needs an ambulance gets one, and we continue to perform better than other parts of the country. While patients suffering from life-threatening conditions do receive the next available ambulance, some patients are waiting longer than we would like.
"Improvements to our call centres mean we are now offering health advice to more patients over the phone without the need to send an ambulance. Consequently, well under 50% of our patients actually go to the hospital. We also continue working with NHS partners to ease handover delays.
"We are grateful to patients for considering alternatives for non-urgent health concerns, including NHS 111 online, GP or local pharmacy, which helps us keep our ambulances available for emergencies."
A&E waiting times
Emergency departments should admit, transfer or discharge 95% of patients within four hours of their arrival, according to NHS targets. No NHS trust in Merseyside met this target in December. Across England, just 65% were A&E attendances were dealt with in that time. In Merseyside, it was as low as 53% last month.
This is how A&E departments in Merseyside performed in December:
- St Helens And Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (53%)
- Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust (60%)
- Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (62%)
- Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (64%)
- Southport And Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust (71%)
- Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (82%)
- Liverpool Women's NHS Foundation Trust (88%)
- Wirral Community Health And Care NHS Foundation Trust (93%)
- Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust (94%)
Waiting lists
The NHS aims for 92% of patients to start treatment within 18 weeks of a referral. Only two of the 12 trusts in Merseyside met this target in November. Across England, nearly 7m people are on waiting lists. Roughly 40% of those patients have been on waiting lists for more than 18 weeks.
In Merseyside, 100% of the list at one NHS trust had been waiting for less than 18 weeks. At another local trust, the figure was half that. This is the situation at trusts in Merseyside:
- Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (85,542 people, 49% under 18 weeks)
- St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (45,373 people, 66% under 18 weeks)
- Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (37,188 people, 62% under 18 weeks)
- Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust (21,984 people, 54% under 18 weeks)
- Liverpool Women's NHS Foundation Trust (17,670 people, 44% under 18 weeks)
- Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust (16,308 people, 66% under 18 weeks)
- The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust (12,563 people, 80% under 18 weeks)
- Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (5,060 people, 79% under 18 weeks)
- Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (2,771 people, 35% under 18 weeks)
- The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust (969 people, 98% under 18 weeks)
- Wirral Community NHS Foundation Trust (121 people, 84% under 18 weeks)
- Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust (53 people, 100% under 18 weeks)
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