A&E WAITING TIMES THE WORST ON RECORD AS 30% OF DOCTORS REPORT BEING BEING BURNT OUT
NHS England figures release today show that A&E performance is at record low in England. In December, just 79.8% of patients were seen in the Emergency Department within 4 hours, down from 81.4% the month before. This comes following revelations last month that for the first time every major A&E department had failed to hit it’s four hour waiting target in England.
This comes as a GMC survey of 6400 ‘specialty’ doctors seen by DAUK and published this morning showed that up to 30% clinicians reported feeling burnt out to a ‘high’ or ‘very high’ degree.
Dr Rinesh Parmar, Chair of The Doctors’ Association UK and an intensive care doctor said:
“These figures, the worst on record, will sadly not come as a surprise to frontline doctors, who are working themselves into the ground to keep patients safe this winter. Poor morale and spiralling workloads have contributed to a staffing crisis in Emergency Medicine with A&E doctors showing the highest level of burnout across all specialities. We are therefore are struggling to retain the A&E doctors the NHS so desperately need. Emergency doctors and our nursing colleagues are doing their utmost under very trying circumstances and it is the government who must be held to account for these latest performance figures – which is almost certainly a direct result of years of under-funding.”
CONTACT
1. The Doctors’ Association UK (DAUK) is a trade association for UK doctors. Run by frontline NHS doctors, DAUK campaigns for patients and the NHS as well as advocating for the medical profession. DAUK have been vocal on patient safety issues and have consistently campaigned for safe staffing levels.
2. A GMC survey of 6400 doctors revealed up to 30% of participants reported ‘high’ or ‘very high’ feeling of burn out. The survey was of doctors not in training or consultants, other wise specialty doctors, associate specialists, or locally employed doctors. Due to attrition of doctors training in Emergency Medicine, non-training grades such as those surveyed make up a significant proportion of doctors working in Emergency Departments. The initial findings of the survey can be found here: https://www.gmc-uk.org/education/standards-guidance-and-curricula/projects/survey-of-specialty-and-associate-specialist-and-locally-employed-doctors?utm_source=DAUK&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=SAS_LE_results
