Long waits in A&E have increased by 557% in seven years, NHS data reveals

Philip Hammond is under intense pressure to pump more money into the NHS in his budget this month as new official figures show the number of people waiting more than four hours in A&E has soared by 557% since the Tories came to power in 2010.

The NHS data published last week, described as “staggering” by Labour, shows the total number of patients enduring so called “trolley waits” of over four hours has risen from 6,932 in October 2010 to 45,532 last month.

In addition, Labour analysis of the figures shows that during Theresa May’s first full financial year as prime minister there were 565,956 instances of trolley waits lasting more than four hours – the worst annual tally since records began.

The figures have emerged after the head of NHS England, Simon Stevens, last week took the highly unusual step of intervening to demand more cash for the service he runs. He called on ministers to honour the pledge made by Leave campaigners during the Brexit referendum by ploughing £350m of savings that Brexit supporters said would accrue from leaving the EU every week into healthcare.

A target for the numbers forced to wait as long as four hours was introduced by Labour in 2004, initially obliging hospitals in England to see and either admit, transfer or discharge 98% of A&E patients within that period.

However, this was relaxed by the coalition government to 95% in 2010. That target was effectively – though not formally – scrapped by health secretary Jeremy Hunt in January when he said that the time would have to be revised to remove non-urgent cases.

While the waits are known as trolley waits, the figures also include patients waiting in side-rooms, seats in the A&E department and spare cubicles before being admitted to a ward.

It is believed that Hunt is now also applying heavy pressure behind the scenes on Hammond to provide extra money, amid warnings that the service is at breaking point.

Speaking at a conference of the Unite union on Monday, shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth will say that after seven years of Tory-led government the NHS is “underfunded, overstretched and understaffed”. He will pledge that if Labour were in power it would provide an immediate extra injection of £6bn.

“Theresa May cannot be allowed to carry on ignoring the warnings about the state of the NHS. She will break the NHS unless she acts in the budget. It’s as stark as that,” he will say.

Hammond is also facing a chorus of demands to do more to boost housebuilding and to help the increasing number of people who cannot afford to buy their own homes but are forced to rent in the private sector.

A new report by the campaign group Generation Rent estimates that a million retired households will be renting privately by 2035 compared with just 370,000 now. A survey commissioned by the group finds that renters over 60 are now almost twice as likely as those in their 20s to prefer renting over home ownership.

It says that an increasing number of pensioners scrambling to secure a home in the private rented sector could send rents spiralling. Generation Rent warns that, as a result, the state would have to step in to make up any shortfall, a move that could see the housing benefit bill balloon.

Dan Wilson Craw, director of Generation Rent, warned: “With most debates on housing focused on young adults, politicians risk neglecting the vast numbers of people who are already too old to get a mortgage and face a lifetime of renting.” David Adler, author of the Generation Rent report, said: “The longer, or worse, someone’s renting experience has been, the more likely they are to favour reform of the rental sector over an escape to owner-occupation. As the renter population ages, this preference, and demands for reform, will only increase.”

In a speech last week, Stevens warned that faith in democracy “will not be strengthened” if Hammond argues in his budget that economic turbulence caused by Brexit means he cannot promise extra cash for the NHS. Stevens said: “Rather than our criticising these clear Brexit funding commitments to NHS patients – promises entered into by cabinet ministers and by MPs – the public want to see them honoured.”

Health experts, charities and pressure groups have also demanded extra financial support. The Health Foundation, the King’s Fund and the Nuffield Trust have calculated that the NHS needs £4bn more next year to prevent patient care from deteriorating, following a joint analysis of NHS finances in England.

Jim Mackey, the chief executive of the health regulator NHS Improvement, also said recently that the NHS could “pop” without extra investment. “If there is no more money in the budget, honestly I think we need to be sitting down and agreeing publicly and as a collective what’s actually possible to deliver within that resource. We can’t do everything.”