Ambulances transporting patients with diseases such as heart attacks and strokes take more than an hour and a half on average. This is the longest average wait time in recorded history for emergency patients across the country.
Since records began in 2011, more than half of patients at major A&Es had to wait more than four hours in England last month for the first time.
In December, the average response time for ambulances in England responding to calls from persons with life-threatening illnesses or injuries was 10 minutes and 57 seconds, according to new data.
This is the longest response time ever recorded. And contrasts with the intended standard response time of seven minutes for urgent events.
For the first time, the average wait time for Category 2 ambulance calls. Emergencies such as heart attacks and strokes – exceeded an hour and a half (1hr 32m54s). The desired duration of these calls is 18 minutes.
The most recent NHS England data also revealed that 50.4% of patients attending major A&E departments were not seen within the four-hour goal time.
This is 4.9% worse than November and 19% worse than the corresponding month pre-pandemic.
With high A&E attendance rates and call handlers receiving a record number of 999 calls in December of last year. The numbers reveal that the NHS is facing an incredibly hard winter.
Over a third (35%) of patients who visited all A&Es. Including specialized facilities and minor injuries units, waited over four hours. This is the worst number ever recorded, and the only time this figure has exceeded one-third.
It is 3.9% less than in November and 14.8% less than in December.
Meanwhile, NHS England waiting lists for common treatments such as cataract operations decreased for the first time since May 2020. However, the number of patients waiting over a year for treatment is still 220 times higher. Than it was before the pandemic.
7,19 million people are currently awaiting NHS treatment, down from 7,21 million.
The October peak of 7.21 million was 3.3 million more than the May 2020 peak of 3.95 million. And after 29 months of unbroken growth for the waiting list.
Nevertheless, 7.19 million is the second-greatest number of people on the waiting list after a month since records began in 2007.
The number of individuals waiting more than two years decreased from 1,907 to 1,423. The number of individuals waiting 18 months or longer decreased from 50,124 to 48,961. And the number of those waiting more than a year decreased from 410,983 to 406,575.
The data were released one day after up to 25,000 ambulance employees went on strike in a salary dispute with the government.
Around 61% of the record 16,296 cancer patients
The nurses are slated to strike the following Wednesday and Thursday. And the ambulance workers are scheduled to strike the following week, on January 23.
In November, a record 264,391 urgent cancer referrals were made by general practitioners in England. The greatest amount since records began in 2009.
The percentage of cancer patients in England who visited a specialist within two weeks of being urgently referred by their primary care physician increased from 77.8% in October to 78.2% in November but remained below the objective of 93%.
Around 61% of the record 16,296 cancer patients who received their initial therapy in November on an urgent referral from their primary care physician had waited less than two months, an improvement from 60.3% the previous month but still below the 85% target.
A record average of 14,069 hospital beds per day were occupied by patients awaiting discharge in England last week, up from 13,134 the week prior and 11,795 at the same time last year.
