The number of people who waited for longer than four hours at Leicester’s accident and emergency department has increased dramatically in the last 10 years.
In 2013-14, 24,314 patients were seen in over four hours but in 2023-24 the figure had increased to 114,064.
Yet in the same period the number of patients only increased from 209,950 to 246,982, a rise of 17.6%.
The four-hour standard was introduced by the Labour government in 2004 and there has been no indication from the current Labour government that it will be scrapped.
BBC East Midlands health correspondent Rob Sissons said that despite the issues faced by the NHS such as funding, rising demand and an ageing population, Leicester’s shocking wait times figures are a sign of widespread issues within the healthcare system.
He said: “It’s a smoke alarm to problems with the entire flow of patients through the healthcare and social care system.
There is a lack of flow of patients through the back door of hospitals and into social care and there’s widespread political consensus that social care is broken in this country.”
University Hospitals of Leicester (UHL) NHS Trust is one of the busiest and biggest single site NHS Trusts in the country, with all A&E patients being seen at Leicester Royal Infirmary.
The trust serves approximately one million residents across the city of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.
But at present there are no plans for a second hospital or A&E department within the trust.
Sissons added: “A second hospital is not on the agenda for Leicester. It just isn’t. For the foreseeable future Leicester will continue with one Accident and Emergency unit. They are trying to encourage patients to go elsewhere.
“There’s a proportion of patients who go to A&E who could be dealt with elsewhere but there are so many access points to the NHS it’s a bit like a confusing maze for a lot of patients.”
One of these access points is General Practitioner (GP) surgeries. GP Dr Darren Jackson from the Leicester Medical Society thinks that the lack of funding in social care services is a major factor in the rise in A&E wait times.
He said: “Some of the excess waiting times are due to people going to A&E as they are unable to access medical help elsewhere. General Practice has been underfunded for years with no expansion in number of GPs in the last decade.
“At the other end A&E struggle to get patients on to the wards due to lack of hospital beds which are often blocked by patients unable to leave hospital due to poor social care services due to underfunding of social care.”
As a experienced GP of 25 years, Dr Jackson believes that there is not an easy solution to these issues.
He added: “It is all in all a very complex problem without one simple answer. Better funding of community care services and social care would likely have the biggest impact.”
The government announced in its 2024 autumn budget that there will be a dedicated fund to deliver around 200 upgrades to GP surgeries across England.
This is alongside a £3.4 billion boost to reform NHS operations, aiming to reduce inefficiencies and enhance patient care through digital means.
But with Leicester’s A&E wait times worsening drastically in the last 10 years, significant investment and restructuring will be needed to change outcomes.
Sissons highlighted the issue of overcrowded hospitals and the problems that they cause.
He said: “Hospitals are a bit like budget hotels. They run at 90/95% capacity a lot of the time. There’s not a lot of spare beds on any given day so it doesn’t take much to tip it over the edge.”
And with UHL serving around one million people the demand is very high and the risk of mistakes is costly.
“There’s a lot of pressure on Leicester.
“We know that patients can come to harm through delays. This is not just inconvenient for patients its actually a question of life and death in extreme cases.”
University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust did not respond to a request for comment.
