Shropshire A&E waits are amongst worst in country

MP Helen Morgan has told the Government to wake up and act quickly to fix “disgraceful” waiting times after it was revealed Shropshire’s A&E departments have some of the longest waits in the country.

Only 51% of patients were dealt with inside four hours at emergency wards in Shrewsbury and Telford in September despite the NHS target being 95%.

This is the third-worst figure of any hospital trust in the country, with Hull and East Cheshire the only organisations with poorer figures than Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust (SaTH).

Meanwhile 632 patients waited more than 12 hours to be admitted at SaTH.

It comes as the waiting list for hospital treatment has hit a record high of seven million in England as hospitals struggle to return to pre-pandemic levels of activity.

Helen Morgan MP said: “It is disgraceful that it is now routine for people to wait hours for an ambulance, hours to see a doctor and then hours to be admitted if they need emergency care.

“The Conservatives are directly responsible for the calamitous situation patients and staff are having to deal with.

“Ministers need to wake up and act, starting with fixing social care. Until the care system is improved, hospital beds will remain blocked and no amount of hard work by doctors will be able to improve the flow.

“This is what every medic I spoke to made clear to me during my shift with ambulance crews on Friday. I don’t know why the Conservatives refuse to listen and refuse to act.”

As well as long waiting times at A&E, Shropshire has some of the longest ambulance delays in the country with paramedics often stranded waiting to handover patients. Helen joined an ambulance crew for a 12-hour shift last week to see the impact of these delays first hand.

The health service expects that at least 95 per cent of people attending A&E should be admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours, but that target has not been met in England since 2015.