New figures reveal that 10,698 more of us could be waiting longer than four hours to be seen at Wye Valley NHS Trust by 2023. Wye Valley NHS Trust is already one of the worst performing trusts for A&E waiting times in the country and by 2023 this could be much worse.

The news comes after Prime Minister Theresa May and NHS England announced their 10 year plan for the NHS, which does not commit to meeting NHS key waiting time targets for visits to A&E and routine operations, like hip replacements and cataracts surgery.

It follows the Royal College for Emergency Medicine issuing a stark warning that cancelling four hour A&E waiting time targets would “have a near catastrophic impact on patient safety” in A&Es.

The latest data shows that Wye Valley NHS Trust is one of the worst performing trusts for A&E waiting times in the country.

The analysis of the figures, by campaigning group 38 Degrees, looked at trends in waiting times in A&Es across the country based on the last five years.

It shows that, if the same NHS waiting times trends we saw in Wye Valley NHS Trust, between 2013 and 2018, continue, in just five years’ time, 10,698 more of us could be waiting more than four hours to receive treatment in A&E locally.

More than 100,000 members of the public have already signed a 38 Degrees petition calling on Prime Minister Theresa May to commit to meeting these key NHS waiting times targets.

In the last week, almost 20,000 voters from across the country have written to their local MP, including Jesse Norman, concerned about local waiting times.

Trish Murray, Campaign Manager at 38 Degrees, said:

“10,698 more people spending hours in A&E waiting rooms.

“This isn’t the NHS plan patients across the country were waiting for.

“When the government announced extra funding for the NHS, voters didn’t expect to end up waiting longer for the treatment they and their families need. 100,000 members of the public are calling on Theresa May and Health Secretary Matt Hancock to fix this - commit to meeting targets and bring down waiting times.”See this week’s paper for more stories like this, available in shops and as a Digital Edition now.