Only 77.3% of people seeking help at a hospital A&E in England were treated within four hours last month - the worst performance since records began

The percentage of A&E patients being treated within the politically important four-hour target has reached its lowest ever level, with hospitals managing to care for just 77.3% of patients within that time last month – far fewer than the 95% target covering all types of urgent and emergency care.

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Fewer than four out of five patients were treated and then admitted, discharged or transferred by emergency departments based at hospitals in England during December, what the NHS calls type 1 A&E units.



That was the worst performance since records began – even worse than the previous low of 77.6% recorded in January 2017 and the 79.3% recorded in December 2016.



A record number of patients were also admitted to hospital as an emergency last month – 392,277 – in another illustration of the intense and growing pressure that the NHS is under.

Patients are suffering as a result of hospitals’ inability to treat anywhere near the 95% of A&E arrivals they are supposed to, senior doctors have said.

“These figures support the messages we have been getting from our members about conditions across the NHS and the struggle they are facing to provide safe and compassionate care in exceedingly difficult conditions,” said Dr Nick Scriven, the president of the Society for Acute Medicine, which represents acute and general medical specialist hospitals.

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“The data hides the misery and lack of dignity some people are being treated with and it is a potentially worrying side note that the Care Quality Commission is postponing inspections during ‘winter’.”



There were 24 flu-related deaths in the last week of 2017, taking the total number of flu-related deaths to 48 so far this winter, official figures from Public Health England show.



Separate figures from NHS England also showed that hospitals and ambulance services in England came under intense strain last week.

A&E units had to temporarily divert patients elsewhere 32 times in the week that began on New Year’s Day. That is an admission by a hospital trust that it cannot safely care for the number of patients turning up at its emergency department.

A surge in the demand for care has forced England’s 153 acute trusts to divert patients, either to another trust or the A&E of another hospital they run, a total of 182 times so far since late November.

Gloucestershire hospitals NHS trust had to deploy that tactic seven times last week – the most among the 153 acute trusts. Gateshead Health NHS foundation trust had six diverts at different times on New Year’s Day, when the closure of most GP practices for the long holiday weekend was likely to have increased the number of people seeking help.

Reacting to the figures, Theresa May said flu was partly to blame for delays in A&E departments. “One of the issues that determines the extent of that pressure is flu and we have seen in recent days an increase in the number of people presenting at A&E from flu, and the NHS today has launched their national flu campaign. And I would encourage people to act on the advice that the NHS is giving, and also encourage NHS staff who haven’t had the flu vaccine yet to have that vaccine.

“We have put more funding into the NHS for these winter pressures. We’re putting more funding into the NHS overall. But, in terms of these winter pressures that we see the NHS under, there have been a number of measures that we’ve taken that have helped. For example, for the first time ever, urgent GP appointments being available through the Christmas period. That was a decision taken to improve the service for people, but also to ensure that the NHS had that better capacity to deal with these winter pressures.”

The Liberal Democrats claimed the figures showed that ministers had to agree to abandon their longstanding policy of giving the NHS “inadequate” funding or risk having “blood on their hands” as a result of patients receiving poor care.

“Theresa May cannot ignore this crisis any longer. All the government has offered is inadequate sums of money which barely keep a dysfunctional system going”, said Norman Lamb, who was a health minister in the coalition government until 2015.

“Every day patients are dying and experiencing dreadful failures of care. So the message to the government is clear: sort it now, without delay. Ministers have a choice: agree to work with others to deliver a proper, sustainable settlement for the NHS or be left with blood on their hands.”