NHS figures show urgent and sustained action needed across health and social care

Responding to the publication on the monthly NHS England performance statistics, Tim Gardner, Senior Policy Fellow at the Health Foundation said:

‘Today’s NHS performance data should ring alarm bells for Liz Truss and Thérèse Coffey, signalling that urgent and sustained action is needed to support both the health service and social care.

‘In August 2022, over 28,000 people spent more than 12 hours on trolleys in emergency departments waiting for a hospital bed, over 3 times more than in the whole of 2019. One in 10 patients with a serious condition such as a stroke or chest pain waited over 90 minutes for an ambulance.

‘The waiting list for routine hospital treatment reached another new record high of 6.8 million in July 2022, with around 378,000 waiting over a year.

‘The biggest single factor holding back the NHS is workforce, with around 132,000 vacancies. Our new polling with Ipsos shows supporting and expanding the NHS workforce is a major priority for the public, a large majority of whom support measures to fix staffing issues even if additional funding is needed. The prescription is clear: the NHS needs a long-term workforce strategy, backed by sustained government investment.

‘Pressures exist across the whole health and care system. The need for investment and to address workforce issues are just as urgent in social care. But diverting money from one to the other would be robbing Peter to pay Paul.’

Media contact

Creina Lilburne
creina.lilburne@health.org.uk