CQC survey finds people have poor experiences of urgent and emergency care
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) results from this year's survey show people are having poor experiences of urgent and emergency care services. This applies more so for people using A&E services, with Urgent Treatment Centre patients generally reporting more positively.
Survey findings
- 61% of patients reported ambulance handovers happening within 15 minutes, 23% waited between 16 minutes to 1 hour and 17% waited more than 1 hour.
- 28% of A&E patients said waited for more than 1 hour to be assessed by a nurse or doctor.
- Eleven per cent of A&E respondents had at least one communication support need. Of those, more than a quarter (27%) said they were not given help with their needs. In addition, less than half (44%) said staff ‘definitely’ provided help. Support needs included translator or interpreter (3%); easy read materials (2%), large print materials (1%) or another type (6%).
- Of the 30% who had been to A&E previously for the same condition, 13% said they did not get the help they needed on their previous visit.
Data collected by NHS England showed the waiting times in A&E (Type 1 in the graph above) have not improved much. The number of patients waiting longer than four hours in A&E to be treated or discharged has remained at around 40% or more for the last two years. Patients attending Type 3 services (Urgent Treatment Centres) fared better. Since January 2023 only around 5% of patients waited longer than four hours for treatment.
