Andy Burnham MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, in response to the UK Statistic Authority’s suggestion that Tory A&E waiting times claims are incomplete and might require a Commons record correction, said:

“Not for the first time, David Cameron and Jeremy Hunt have been found out making dodgy claims about the NHS from the Despatch Box. It proves their statements on the NHS, even in the House of Commons, can no longer be trusted.

“Sir Andrew Dilnot confirms that waiting times in A&E have got worse on this Government’s watch. But his analysis concludes that things are even worse than we thought, with hospital A&Es missing the Government’s lowered target in every quarter for almost two years.

"This is a damning verdict on David Cameron’s and Jeremy Hunt’s mismanagement of the NHS and their desperate attempts to paper over the cracks. The gap between their spin and the reality for patients is becoming dangerous. Cameron and Hunt need to start putting patients before their own PR and produce a plan to halt the decline in A&E.” 

Ends 

Notes to editors

1) David Cameron told Parliament that the average waiting time in A&E is “down by more than half”. But Sir Andrew Dilnot says that the average (both mean and median) amount of time patients are spending in A&E has gone up, not down, since David Cameron took office, and that the data recorded for the “time to departure” measure of the length of time spent in A&E “is likely to be the most complete”.

 “The average waiting time is down by more than half. That is better”

David Cameron, Hansard, 2 July 2014, column 883

“HSCIC has told us that it generally supplies the ‘duration to departure’ measure when asked to provide data to respond to Parliamentary Questions as this is closest to the NHS England standard. The mean duration to departure time in 2009-10 was 135 minutes and in 2012-13 it was 141 minutes. The median duration to departure in 2009-10 was 122 minutes, and 128 minutes in 2012-13.”

Sir Andrew Dilnot, letter to Andy Burnham, 29 July 2014

 “HSCIC advised that the time to departure estimate is likely to be the most complete.”

Sir Andrew Dilnot, letter to Andy Burnham, 29 July 2014

2) Sir Andrew Dilnot says that Jeremy Hunt was wrong to claim in Parliament that the median time to assessment in A&E had fallen by more than half – and that he should consider correcting the record.

 "I note that the Secretary of State for Health referred to this figure being the median time to assessment; and that the published official statistics report this, instead, as 9 minutes in 2009-10, and 8 minutes in 2012-13. The Secretary of State may wish to take advice on whether it is necessary to correct the parliamentary record.”

Sir Andrew Dilnot, letter to Andy Burnham, 29 July 2014

3) Sir Andrew Dilnot says that Type 1 A&E Departments (major hospital A&Es) have missed their target of seeing 95 per cent of patients within four hours for the last seven quarters in a row - every quarter since October-December 2012.

 Sir Andrew Dilnot, letter to Andy Burnham, 29 July 2014, Table 2