Wes Streeting responds to new report on A&E waiting times

Wes Streeting MP, Labour’s Shadow Health and Social Care Secretary, responding to the Royal College of Emergency Medicine’s Winter report, which finds that just 57.97% of A&E patients were seen within 4 hours in the week commencing 27^th December, said:

“It is unacceptable for almost half of patients to be left waiting, often in pain and distress, for more than 4 hours in A&E over Christmas.

“After a decade of Tory mismanagement of the NHS, we went into the pandemic with record A&E waiting times, leaving us in the worst possible position when Covid struck.

“It’s not just that the Tories didn’t fix the roof while the sun was shining, they dismantled the roof and removed the floorboards.

“Labour will secure the future of the NHS with the staff, modern equipment and technology needed to bring waiting times down.” 

Ends

Notes to editors

1. The Royal College of Emergency Medicine latest Winter Flow report is available here: https://rcem.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Winter_Flow_project_070122.pdf
2. Data was collected on 7 January for the week 27 December – 2 January, and the report was published the morning of 11 January.