13 January 2025 – the overnight press releases

  • Record 518,000 trolley waits of 12 hours or more last year – up 400-fold in less than a decade
  • Rennie comments ahead of Glen Sannox first crossing

Record 518,000 trolley waits of 12 hours or more last year – up 400-fold in less than a decade

Liberal Democrat Health and Social Care spokesperson Helen Morgan MP has urged Wes Streeting to produce an emergency plan to tackle “shocking and dangerous” A&E wait times as the government “looks to be asleep at the wheel”.

Last year there were a record 518,000 waits of 12 hours or longer in A&E from a decision to admit, research by the Liberal Democrat has revealed. Staggeringly, that is nearly 400-times more 12 hour waits than 2015’s figure of 1,306.

The figures also revealed a sharp rise of more than 100,000 12 hour trolley waits on 2023’s figure of 415,000, a jump of 25%. Prior to the pandemic in 2019 there were just 8,272 trolley waits of 12 hours or longer. Last year that figure rose 63-fold to 518,000.

In December alone, 54,000 patients waited 12 hours or longer in A&E from a decision to admit, up 23-fold on the December 2019’s figure of just 2,356.

Long waits at A&E are extremely dangerous and the Royal College of Emergency Medicine estimates that in 2023 14,000 deaths were associated with long waits in A&E.

Liberal Democrat Health and Social Care Spokesperson Helen Morgan MP called the figures “shocking” and said the new government “looks to be asleep at the wheel”. The Party is calling on the Health Secretary to come forward with an emergency plan to tackle this crisis to protect patients from this ongoing crisis.

The Lib Dems said the plans must include urgently increasing the number of hospital beds to bring bed occupancy levels down to the safe level of 85%, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine says that it currently stands at 93%, and to set up a pandemic-style emergency recruitment campaign to bring staff out of retirement and back into the workforce.

Liberal Democrat Health and Social Care spokesperson, Helen Morgan MP, said:

We are seeing shocking and dangerous long A&E waits, putting patient lives at risk and leaving staff struggling to cope.

After years of the previous Conservative government running our NHS into the ground, our emergency services are facing collapse and patients are paying the price.

The new government looks to be asleep at the wheel and must take rapid action to remedy this crisis. This must start with the Health Secretary producing an emergency plan to protect patients from this ongoing disaster.

It must include an urgent expansion of the number of hospital beds to get back to safe levels and a pandemic-style emergency recruitment campaign to bring staff out of retirement and back into the workforce.

Rennie comments ahead of Glen Sannox first crossing

Speaking ahead of the new Glen Sannox ferry making its maiden voyage to the Isle of Arran, as news broke of defects affecting one of its decks and further delays expected for its sister ship, the Glen Rosa, Scottish Liberal Democrat Willie Rennie MSP said:

This must be Scotland’s most haunted ship: years late, millions of pounds overbudget, a fake launch and now, last minute glitches and even more delays to its sister ship.

Islanders will need to see the Glen Sannox setting sail for themselves before they can believe it.

After years of delays and excuses, island communities won’t forget the SNP’s neglect of them any time soon.

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This entry was posted in News, Press releases and Scotland.
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