Doctors urge patients to write to MPs over NHS's 'serious challenges'

The percentage of A&E patients being treated within the four-hour target period has reached a record low, prompting senior doctors to take the unprecedented step of urging patients to write to their MPs about the “serious” challenges facing the NHS.

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine said warnings and pleas for adequate funding had failed to deliver. Its president, Dr Taj Hassan, called on patients to send letters to their MPs to ask for action to address the problems facing A&E departments.

“Performance that once would have been regarded as utterly unacceptable has now become normal and things are seemingly only getting worse for patients,” he said.

The senior doctor’s warning comes as the latest NHS figures show the worst ever four-hour emergency care performance at just 76.9% at major emergency departments – the lowest since records began and well below the 95% target covering all types of urgent and emergency care.

Source: theguardian