Responding to the latest NHS England performance data, RCN Director for England, Patricia Marquis, said:
“If clear proof were needed that the pressures facing health and care are now year-round, this is it.
“Both routine and emergency care are facing incredible demands, with the waiting list for routine operations rising to yet another all-time high and the dangerous circle where delays in one part of the system impact on another as significant as ever.
“28,756 patients are waiting more than 12 hours to be admitted to hospital from A&E - more than ten times this time last year - and nearly seven million people now waiting for routine treatment.
“Patients are being treated on trollies and in corridors and because there aren’t enough nursing staff lives are being put at risk: if you don’t have enough nurses, the risk of death increases. Fact.
“The new prime minister and health secretary can be under no illusions as to the scale of the task ahead.
“In just over a week’s time we will be posting strike ballot papers to 300,000 nursing staff across the UK. The PM has promised ‘immediate’ action from her health secretary – the need to pay a demoralised and unvalued nursing profession fairly could not be more pressing.”
Ends
Notes to Editors
NHS England performance data shows 6.84 million people waiting for routine treatment as of July 2022, this is up from 6.73 million the previous month and the highest since records began in 2007.
The number of people waiting more than 12 hours from decision to admit to admission has increased from the previous year - from 2,787 in August 2021 to 28,756 in August 2022.
