Dr Onkar Sahota warns of NHS reaching breaking point in London as workforce crisis deepens

Dr Onkar Sahota AM has warned that the NHS crisis will deepen and reach 'breaking point' this winter as junior doctors and consultants are pushed to undertake the first joint strike in NHS history. 

Ministers must address the sky-high waiting times at A&E departments, deal with chronic understaffing and resolve the issues driving the strikes to avoid a winter crisis in the NHS, Dr Sahota, Labour’s London Assembly Health Spokesperson and a practicing NHS GP, has demanded. 

NHS data has demonstrated the depth of the crisis in healthcare in London and the strains faced by doctors. In August 2023, 16,478 patients in London who needed admission through A&E faced a trolley wait – a delay of four hours or more waiting for a hospital bed. 

Not one of the 18 London NHS trusts with major emergency A&E departments met the standard of seeing 95% of patients within four hours. Four saw fewer than half of patients within 4 hours: Barking, Havering & Redbridge University Hospitals Trust; King’s College Hospital Foundation Trust; London North West University Healthcare Trust; and The Hillingdon Hospitals Foundation Trust. 

Hillingdon Hospital NHS Foundation Trust saw only 39.5% of patients being seen within 4 hours – the joint second worst in England, behind only West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. 

The four-hour standard sets out that at least 95% of patients attending A&E in England should be admitted to hospital, transferred to another provider, or discharged within four hours. 

London’s NHS services are facing a staffing crisis. There are almost 30,000 full-time posts vacant in London, 11.6% of the total workforce. This is the highest vacancy rate for any region in England, with the national average at 8.9%. For nursing, London’s vacancy figure is 13.5% – significantly higher than the 10.6% rate for England as a whole. 

Staffing issues are expected to worsen, with a third of medical students planning to either practice medicine overseas or leave the profession altogether, according to a study published in BMJ Open last week.  

NHS services in London are in a poor position to face increased pressures over winter. In January 2020, the last winter before the pandemic, 402 patients in London England had A&E waits exceeding 12 hours. In August 2023, a month without extreme weather, severe pandemic pressures or major tragedy in London, 5,048 patients faced delays of more than half a day, an increase of more than 1,150%. 

Vacancy rates have also increased by more than 8,000 during that time, jumping from 21,258 to 29,521 full-time roles being unfilled in London. 

NHS waiting lists hit a new record high of 7.7 million across England. In January 2020, this figure was 4.4 million. 

Labour’s London Assembly Health spokesperson, Onkar Sahota AM, said:   

“NHS staff are working as hard as they can but there is currently huge pressure on them. 

“Londoners are being hit hard with too many people having to wait more than four hours for treatment at A&E. These woeful waiting times show the consequence of more than a decade of underfunding and neglect of the health service by government. Their mismanagement has resulted in chronic staffing shortages, blow out waiting lists and some of the worst A&E treatment times in history.  

“Things are only going to get worse as we are yet to feel the full impact of winter pressures - there is a real risk of the NHS reaching breaking point over winter. 

“Ministers must urgently get a grip of the crisis. They can start by offering doctors and nurses a pay rise that values their hard work, then a sustainable long term funded strategy that stops the NHS haemorrhaging staff.”