Thousands of people forced to wait more than four hours in A&E at Milton Keynes Hospital

Data from the NHS shows that 2,852 people had to wait more than four hours for emergency care at Milton Keynes Hospital’s A&E department.

Just 80% of patients admitted to A&E in the area were seen within four hours, despite the NHS saying that 95% of patients should be admitted, transferred, or discharged in that time.

Accident and emergency departments across the country are facing huge pressures and there were also 6.73 million people on the NHS waiting list in England as of June 2022.

This is the highest ever recorded. At the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, there were 4.4 million people on the NHS waiting list in England, which was then a record high.

Nationally, the standard of 92% of people seen within 18 weeks of a referral has not been met since 2016. Now, one in every nine people in England are on the NHS waiting list.

The NHS went into the latest wave of COVID infections with the longest waiting list ever, understaffed and overstretched, said local councillors this week

The Labour and Liberal Democrat-run Progressive Alliance is now calling on the Government to dramatically improve the system.

Councillor Emily Darlington, Labour Progressive Alliance Cabinet member for Healthy Communities, said: “We are entering into a winter crisis in the NHS. Too many people are waiting far too long for urgent care - all too often in serious pain. That’s not good enough.

“Waiting rooms are filling up with people needing dental treatment, unable to see their GP and many other health services that have suffered over a decade of underinvestment. Our NHS is stretched and exhausted.

“Rapid accident emergency care is essential - yet the Conservatives have scrapped the zero tolerance for 12 hour waits and the results are there for all to see.”

Councillor Jane Carr, Lib Dem Cabinet Member for Public Health, said: “All of our NHS staff are working incredibly hard, but they can only do so much. Change must come from Central Government because people deserve better. Our NHS doctors, nurses and other NHS staff deserve better. This Government is out of touch and out of ideas, whilst leaving our health service in tatters.”