ACCIDENT and Emergency (A&E) attendances at Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust reached 17,521 over June and July, prompting concerns from Bath’s MP about an ongoing crisis.

Up from 11,812 a decade ago, Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse said the NHS ‘winter crisis’ had become a year-round ‘permacrisis,’ with local services under constant pressure and patients at risk. She urged the Government to introduce emergency measures ahead of the busier winter months.

The figures also found that long waits in Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust have been soaring. In the data reported so far on the summer months, which covers June and July, there have been 76 waits of 12 hours or longer from when a decision to admit a patient is made to that patient actually being admitted.

These ‘trolley waits’ have risen sharply from the 2015 summer period where they were non-existent in Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust with 0 recorded.

These long delays can have deadly consequences. Analysis by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine has previously stated that 16,600 deaths were linked to long A&E waits before admission in 2024.

A member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Emergency Care, Mrs Hobhouse recently visited the South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SWASFT) at Bath Ambulance Station on Cleveland Bridge to meet staff and leaders and hear first-hand about the challenges they are also facing.

Meeting with Dr John Martin, the Trust’s Chief Executive, Paul Birkett-Wendes, Head of Operations for the Bath, Swindon and Wiltshire (BSW) region, and Oliver Dalton, Operations manager BSW, Mrs Hobhouse heard how so-called “Hospital Handover Delays” are one of their biggest challenges.

For their part, SWASFT is working very closely with hospitals across the South West, to help ensure their ambulance clinicians can get back out on the road as quickly as possible to respond to other 999 calls in the community.

Mrs Hobhouse said the Government must implement emergency measures to tackle the crisis in A&E. She argued these measures should include plans to increase vaccine uptake for seasonal illnesses, expand access to pharmacies and a recruitment and retention drive to increase the number of out-of-hours GPs. The Bath MP said that this would take pressure off stretched A&E waiting rooms and protect patients.

She said:“Local health services in Bath have entered a state of permacrisis. The typical winter pressures that we see are now being felt all year round and patients and their loved ones are often paying the price.

“The Conservative party’s shameful neglect of local health services brought us to this point but this Labour government needs to realise that we could be sleepwalking towards disaster this winter unless Ministers take urgent action.

“We need an emergency package of measures to protect patients and their families from desperate situations this winter. These need to include increasing vaccine uptake for seasonal illnesses, increasing access to pharmacies and by expanding the number of out-of-hours GPs.”