12 hours wait A&E. What happens in the world while you wait 12 hours in A&E?

Time is EVERYTHING. The average human spends roughly 79 years or 692 040 hours onEarth. In only 12 hours, 182,500 new human beings arrive on our planet, the world’schickens will lay 95 million eggs, our bodies will lose and reproduce up to 25 trillion cells andYOU might be waiting to be admitted in an A&E.

The NHS in England is a very large system which struggles to keep up with theunprecedented demand of patients and this leads to growing queues at Accident andEmergency departments across England. In November 2020, 2,141 people waited for morethan 12 hours before admission and the number is rising.

The fact that people wait half a day to be treated by medical professionals is a pretty poorstandard, especially in a country as wealthy as the UK.

The story is not new, but it’s worth mentioning again. Research has linked the emergencydepartment crowding to patient safety issues. The Mayo Clinic found that admitted patientswho waited longer than four hours in an emergency department setting were more likely todie from heart attacks and strokes.”There is an increased mortality in people who spend along time in emergency departments, so crowding kills patients” (cit.Dr Adrian Boyle, chair ofthe Quality Emergency Care Committee at the Royal College of Emergency Medicine).

Especially now that there is a pandemic, waiting long hours in a room full of undiagnosedpatients feeds the spread of the contagious disease.

Urgent care is in a state of crisis. Ambulance waits, bed occupancy and consultant cover areall heavily compromised. This is causing an absolute meltdown in capacity.

“We must build more capacity into the system.” says Dr Katherine Henderson,President ofthe Royal College of Emergency Medicine. “The Expansion of EDs is great, but it is wholehospitals that need capacity in the form of more beds. Unfortunately lack of staff to go withthese beds is the long-term consequence of under-resourcing”.

The current standards in England demand that within 4hours, 95% of patients in the EDshould be seen, treated and admitted or discharged. In terms of actions, to achieve so thehealthcare system should be focusing on two things: evaluate escalation plans during timesof crowding and bolding their medical staff.

With the latter, we can help you to find the best UK healthcare staff.

If you are a candidate, search our latest jobs here.  If you need help with your staffing needs please contact us on 0207 268 6230 or email Jobs@quanticamedical.com.