Emergency care in England faces “year round crisis,” BMA warns

Emergency care services in England are struggling to cope with a “year round crisis” that is damaging patient care, the BMA has warned.

A new BMA analysis of official NHS England data shows that services fared worse on key performance indicators in summer 2018 than in five of the past eight winters.

It examines NHS trusts’ performance against three key indicators: emergency admissions, trolley waits of over four hours (the time spent between the decision to admit and the admission), and the percentage of emergency attendances completed within four hours.

The analysis shows that …