1005 12-hour waits in Hampshire’s A&Es last month as local MP warns government is “asleep at the wheel”

The shocking figures also showed that a staggering 9.4% of waits for people in Hampshire who attended A&E in December were 12 hours or longer from the time they arrived.

Local Liberal Democrat MP Liz Jarvis said the government is “asleep at the wheel” having failed to grip the crisis in Eastleigh’s health service, putting patients at risk.

They called on the Health Secretary to come forward with an emergency plan to rescue A&Es from this crisis and protect patients who are suffering as a result of these long and dangerous delays. The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) has previously said that long waits in A&E are estimated to have contributed to 14,000 deaths in 2023. 

Liberal Democrat MP for Eastleigh, Liz Jarvis said:

“It is a scandal that these dangerous delays have become normalised here in Eastleigh. A&Es in our area, both at Royal Hampshire County Hospital and Southampton General Hospital, are at breaking point after years of the previous Conservative government’s shameful neglect and patients are paying the price.

“The new government looks to be asleep at the wheel and has completely failed to get a grip on the winter crisis. We now need to see Ministers step up and finally begin to tackle this ongoing disaster. 

“That means bringing forward an emergency plan to immediately protect patients from the consequences of these long delays. 

"This response must include an urgent expansion of the number of hospital beds available in Eastleigh and a pandemic-style emergency recruitment campaign to bring staff out of retirement and back into our local health services workforce.”