Tim Farron calls for end to 12-hour A&E waits as corridor care crisis worsens

Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Farron is calling for a £1.5bn plan to end 12-hour A&E waits within a year. This comes as A&Es across the country are facing rocketing waits for patients in desperate need of care.

The new Liberal Democrat plan would introduce a new law to enshrine the right for patients to be seen in A&E within 12 hours, warning that “18 months of Labour failure” has worsened the NHS crisis left by the Conservatives. 

Locally, a shocking 8,525 patients in Morecambe Bay waited over 12 hours to be seen at A&E last year. In November, more than 10% of all A&E patients had to endure a 12 hour wait to be seen.

It comes as University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust has announced plans to close 42 hospital beds due to ‘significant financial challenges’.

The Lib Dem plan would bring to an end 12 hour waits and hospital ‘corridor care’ within a year by:

• Making 6,000 extra hospital beds available to end corridor care within a year.
• Investing in 1,000 more staffed hospital beds.
• Extra investment in social care to reserve 1,600 “safety net” social care places each day, for hospitals to discharge into if they need to.
• Extra step down care - freeing up 1,200 beds a day.
• Making more beds available in care homes and hospitals.

The proposal would be funded by cancelling the planned medicine price hike agreed with the Trump administration before Christmas, which is set to cost the NHS over £3bn a year despite minimal benefits for patients. 

Tim said: “Far too many patients in Cumbria have suffered the pain and indignity of   waiting 12 hours in hospital corridors at A&E.

“Our NHS staff are working so hard, but have been let down by those in power. It is a national emergency and it is devastating our NHS - we need a real plan to fix it.

“Liberal Democrats are offering the bold solutions we need to free up our hospitals and end the A&E crisis once and for all.”