David Cameron prepares for winter of discontent in A&E

There are two important NHS stories in the papers today. First, the Times reports (£) that A&E departments are facing severe pressures because of historic staff shortages. The paper notes:

‘Half of all senior doctor posts go unfilled at accident and emergency departments, putting unsustainable pressure on life-or-death care. The College of Emergency Medicine (CEM) says that 383 of the 699 specialist registrar posts in A&E have been left vacant over the past three years, stretching emergency ward doctors beyond capacity and driving up waiting times. The shortfall in senior doctors deprives A&E departments of the ability to see 766,000 people each year, since the CEM points out that each registrar would have seen about 2,000 patients. This is broadly equivalent to the numbers that would be seen by 12 district general hospitals.’