Harrogate and Knaresborough MP calls government dropping A&E wait time pledge an “insult to patients”

Liberal Democrat MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, Tom Gordon, has called the dropping of the government’s pledge to meet the A&E waiting time target of admitting, transferring or discharging 95% of patients within four hours by the end of the Parliament an “insult to patients”.

It comes as the latest NHS stats reveal that in October 1,739 patients in Harrogate District waited over four hours in A&E. Just 72.5% of patients were seen within the four hour window over that period, missing the NHS target of 95%.

Harrogate and Knaresborough’s MP called the figures “shocking” and said that the government’s decision to drop the four hour wait pledge showed a “lack of ambition” to get patients the care they deserve.

Tom Gordon has called on the government to reinstate the pledge and take steps to ‘winterproof’ the NHS to make this the last winter crisis that the health service and patients ever have to experience.

Liberal Democrat MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, Tom Gordon said:

“To drop this pledge shows a staggering lack of care by the government, let alone ambition, to get patients the care they need.

“After years of Conservative governments running our NHS into the ground, people should see Ministers getting to grips with this scandal of these shocking and dangerous long A&E waits, not admitting defeat before they even start.

“It is an insult to patients throughout Yorkshire for the government to not even try to meet this pledge. Ministers must urgently rethink this approach, reinstate the pledge and take steps to winterproof the NHS to make this the last winter crisis the health service and patients ever have to experience.”

ENDS