A recent study by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) has uncovered a startling statistic: approximately 14,000 excess deaths occurred in the UK in 2023 due to patients waiting 12 hours or more in Accident and Emergency (A&E) departments.
The research employed the Standard Mortality Ratio, a method calculating that for every 72 patients experiencing an 8 to 12-hour wait before admission, one additional death is likely. In 2023, over 1.5 million patients endured waits of 12 hours or more, leading to an average of 268 deaths each week attributed to these delays.
“We talk here about ratios and calculations, but it is vital to remember that each one of these deaths was of a person with loved ones and families who will forever be left asking ‘what if’,” said Adrian Boyle, president of the RCEM.
The National Health Service (NHS) had set a target in its urgent and emergency care recovery plan for 76% of patients to be admitted, transferred, or discharged within four hours by March 2024. However, the RCEM found that in February 2024, only 56.5% of patients met this four-hour target, a decrease of 1.5 percentage points since the plan’s announcement.
“We cannot continue with these inequalities in care, avoidable delays, and deaths,” Boyle expressed, calling for “substantial investment and a commitment to resuscitating emergency care” for both clinicians and patients.
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Research finds 14,000 excess deaths relating to long A&E waits in UK
cgtn.com
