Patients attending Accident & Emergency (A&E) at Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust are experiencing unprecedented delays, highlighting growing pressure on the health service. In June and July of this year, A&E attendances soared to 17,521, a sharp rise from 11,812 during the same period ten years ago. Alarmingly, 76 patients waited over 12 hours between the decision to admit and being allocated a hospital bed—an issue unheard of a decade ago.
Wera Hobhouse, the Liberal Democrat MP for Bath and member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Emergency Care, described the situation as a “permacrisis,” with the intense winter pressures now persisting year-round. She emphasized the severe toll these delays are taking on patients and their families.
“Local health services in Bath have entered a state of permacrisis. The typical winter pressures that we once saw seasonally are now happening all the time, and patients are paying the price,” Hobhouse said. She blamed the Conservative Party’s longstanding neglect of healthcare services and urged the current Labour government to act urgently to prevent a worsening crisis this winter.
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Hobhouse called for an immediate emergency response package to safeguard patients, including increased vaccination efforts against seasonal illnesses, expanded pharmacy access, and the recruitment of more out-of-hours GPs.
During her visit to Bath Ambulance Station, she spoke with staff from South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust who highlighted ongoing hospital handover delays that prevent ambulance crews from returning promptly to emergency calls. This exacerbates response times and strains the already stretched system.
The Royal College of Emergency Medicine has estimated that lengthy A&E waits may have contributed to 16,600 deaths across the NHS in 2024, underscoring the severity of the crisis.
Hobhouse concluded: “Without urgent government action, many more people in Bath could face unbearable delays and miss out on the critical care they need this winter. We must act now to protect patients and their families from this escalating emergency.”