Helen Morgan grills PM as shocking stats show 10,000 Shropshire pensioners faced 24 hour A&E wait last year

MP Helen Morgan has grilled the Prime Minister on emergency waiting times as shocking new statistics revealed over 10,000 pensioners were forced to wait 24 hours or more at A&Es in Shropshire last year.

The North Shropshire MP spoke at Prime Minister’s Questions to highlight data that reveals a staggering number of elderly people are having to wait longer than a day to be admitted or discharged at A&E departments in Shropshire.

The figures were uncovered through a Freedom of Information request to Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust made by the Liberal Democrats.

The hospital trust was put in special measures following a CQC inspection in 2018. In 2019, 290 pensioners were left waiting at the trust’s A&Es for 24 hours or more [see table below]. The number in 2023 was up to a staggering 10,044 – an increase of 3,363% in just four years.

Across all age groups, 14,524 people were left waiting in A&E at Shrewsbury or Telford for over 24 hours in 2023, compared to 597 in 2019.

Underlying the statistics are hundreds, if not thousands, of terrible personal experiences and stories. Some of the cases Helen has raised include a woman left two days on a hospital trolley awaiting A&E transfer, the ex-Mayor of Wem waiting 25 hours from phoning 999, or over 2,000 patients facing waits of 12 or more hours in February alone last year.

The MP has called on the Prime Minister to get a grip on the situation and start fixing our NHS now – with the situation now life and death for many in Shropshire.

Helen Morgan, Liberal Democrat MP for North Shropshire, asked the Prime Minister, “Last year 10,000 people aged 65 and over waited 24 hours or more in A&Es in Shropshire. Ten thousand. That’s 10,000 elderly people waiting in plastic chairs, in corridors, or on trolleys. The Prime Minister says he has a plan. But what people in North Shropshire want to know, is how long are they going to have to wait for him to start fixing our NHS?”

Rishi Sunak responded, “With the record funding we are putting into the NHS, our urgent and emergency care plan is delivering more ambulances, more beds, but also faster discharge through our hospitals to free the flow.

“That plan is working. Of course there is more to do but this winter we saw ambulance and A&E waiting times improve from the year before for the first time in many years, and if we stick to the plan we will continue to deliver improvements for her constituents and everyone else.”

Speaking after PMQs, Helen Morgan MP commented, “The NHS in Shropshire is at breaking point, and these horrifying are further proof that the Government is still not taking it seriously.

“There has a been 3,000% increase in pensioners having to wait over 24 hours at A&E in just five years. The depths of the crisis in our health service continue to plunge to new lows, yet the Government seems unwilling to take action.

“If Rishi Sunak can’t – or won’t – take the action Shropshire needs, we need a new Government. Excuses just won’t do when thousands of my constituents are being left on trolleys and in waiting rooms for hours and days at a time.”