Torbay MP calls government dropping A&E wait time pledge an “insult to patients”

Liberal Democrat MP for Torbay, Steve Darling, has called the dropping of the government’s pledge to meet the A&E waiting time target of admitting, transferring or discharging 95% of patients within four hours by the end of the Parliament an “insult to patients”.

It comes as the latest NHS stats reveal that in October 3,131 patients in Torbay and South Devon waited over four hours in A&E. Just 68.7% of patients were seen within the four hour window over that period, missing the NHS target of 95%.

Torbay’s MP called the figures “shocking” and said that the government’s decision to drop the four hour wait pledge showed a “lack of ambition” to get patients the care they deserve.

Steve has called on the government to reinstate the pledge and take steps to ‘winterproof’ the NHS to make this the last winter crisis that the health service and patients ever have to experience.

Steve added:

“To drop this pledge shows a staggering lack of ambition by the government to get patients the care that they deserve.

“After years of the previous Conservative government running our NHS into the ground, people should see Ministers gripping the scandal of these shocking and dangerous long A&E waits, not admitting defeat before they even start.

“It is an insult to patients here in Torbay for the government to not even try to meet this pledge. Ministers must urgently rethink this approach, reinstate the pledge and take steps to winterproof the NHS to make this the last winter crisis the health service and patients ever have to experience

“Instead of dropping this pledge, the government should be releasing funds for Torbay Hospital’s badly needed repairs and upgrades.”