Graham Stuart Champions Better A&E Care

Beverley and Holderness MP Graham Stuart raised the quality of emergency care available at the Hull Royal Infirmary (HRI) at a briefing this week with Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt and the President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, Dr Clifford Mann.

Graham was attending a presentation on “Essential facts regarding A&E services” organised by the Royal College. Graham used the opportunity to highlight constituents’ concerns about waiting times for emergency treatment at the HRI to the Secretary of State and Dr Mann.

This week Graham wrote to the Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust to ask for an update on whether ambulance crews are still being delayed handing patients over to health care professionals at Accident and Emergency Units. In November 2014, Graham wrote to the Trust after a constituent wrote to say she witnessed eight ambulances waiting for up to two hours to hand patients over to staff at the HRI.

Graham said, “I was very glad to have the opportunity to discuss emergency care with representatives of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine and the Health Secretary today. I have campaigned for several years for improvement to the unacceptable ambulance response times in parts of East Yorkshire. On a related note, several constituents have complained of the length of time they have had to wait for treatment at the Hull Royal Infirmary.

“I appreciate the pressures, our Ambulance Service and A&E Departments operate under. Across the country, 30 patients attend A&E every minute. In 2014 alone, the rise in patient numbers was almost 500,000. This makes it doubly important that the NHS makes the best possible use of available resources. Dr Mann told me that one of the biggest issues Emergency Medicine faces is less recruitment – there are a record number of trainee doctors – but retention of senior trainees and consultants. This is undoubtedly something the Government needs to consider closely.”