Health secretary admits trolley waits are ‘totally unacceptable’ but says majority of hospitals are coping better this winter

Jeremy Hunt has rejected the British Red Cross’s description of a humanitarian crisis in emergency NHS care, arguing that most hospitals are coping better this winter than they did last year.

The health secretary – who plans to make a statement to the House of Commons on the NHS later on Monday – said while it was “totally unacceptable” for patients to be left on trolleys for hours, the situation was improving.

Also on Monday, the Health Service Journal (HSJ) reported that the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM), which represents emergency doctors, was in “early discussions” over more funding for A&E departments, in the hope this could end up saving money on locum doctors.

Theresa May denied that there was any crisis within the health service, insisting that the difficulties were similar to those experienced every year.



“We recognise the pressures that the NHS has been under over the winter - this is not unusual. There are always extra pressures for the NHS over the winter period,” she said, arguing that the government had responded to demands for a £10bn funding injection, despite controversy over the figure.

”I would like to thank all those medical professionals working so hard over this period to make sure they are delivering services to patients. The figure was something like 150,000 medical professionals working on Christmas day and new year’s day.”

Mike Adamson, the chief executive of the British Red Cross, reiterated his charity’s description of the situation, saying his staff were helping out in 20 A&E departments.

“We see people discharged from hospital to chaotic situations at home, falling and not being found for hours, not being washed because there is no carer to help them,” he wrote in an article for the Times.



“These are people in crisis and in recent weeks we have started talking about this as a humanitarian crisis. We don’t say this lightly and we have a duty to say it,” he said.

Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Hunt said he would be making a statement to MPs on the situation in the NHS later on Monday. A Department for Health source said that while timetabling a statement was dependent on Commons authorities, Hunt would update MPs “one way or another”.

Asked about reports of emergency patients being kept on trolleys for hours due to a lack of available beds, Hunt said: “Well, these problems are totally unacceptable. This is the most difficult time for the NHS in the year. It always is very difficult after the Christmas period when GP surgeries are not open over the actual days of Christmas and then they reopen and a lot of people get sent to hospital.”

However, he argued that the situation had “eased significantly” over the weekend, saying the numbers of patients kept too long on trolleys “has reduced to a handful now. so it’s much, much lower than it was a week earlier”.

He added: “This is always the busiest week but we need to work with the public to understand that accident and emergency departments are there for what it says on the tin, for accidents and emergencies.”

Speaking later on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Hunt rejected Adamson’s notion of a humanitarian crisis, citing the view of Chris Hobson, the chief executive of NHS Providers, the body that groups NHS acute care.

“I don’t want to pretend that we haven’t, at this most difficult time of year for the NHS, had some very serious problems in some hospitals. But I think we need to listen to independent people,” Hunt said.

Of Hobson, Hunt added: “He says the vast majority of hospitals are actually coping better this year than last year.”

Hunt’s characterisation ran contrary to the views of some hospital managers who spoke to the HSJ.

Nick Hulme, the chief executive of Colchester and Ipswich hospital trusts, told the journal the current problems in A&E were unprecedented. He said: “I’ve not seen anything like this in 37 years in the health service. There is always a hangover from Christmas and the new year but this has been absolutely relentless.”

Dr Taj Hassan, the president of the RCEM and associate medical director at Leeds teaching hospitals trust, told the journal: “Going into winter we were in the worst-prepared position that we have ever been … in terms of existing performance and the amount of intended investment, with the existing staffing levels in emergency departments and the social care crisis clearly identified as major issues.”

Hunt argued that the problem was less about overall funding than about consistency of provision. “We actually spend a little bit more than the average for rich countries on our health services,” he told Today.

“But we still have 150 avoidable deaths in our hospitals every week. We still have weekend provision that isn’t as good as it needs to be in some places. We still have children with brain injuries, twice a week, which could have been avoided.



“The truth is we have a paradox. We have some of the safest and best hospitals in the world, some of the best mental health care in the world, but it isn’t consistent. What we want to do is to be able to promise all NHS patients that wherever you go, you’ll be able to access the same high-quality care.”

The shadow health secretary, Jon Ashworth, declined to use the term humanitarian crisis, but told Good Morning Britain: “I agree that the NHS is in an absolutely dire situation, on its knees. I’m not going to use those words, but I do agree the NHS is in a crisis. The controversy has to be about the systematic underfunding of the NHS under Theresa May.”