MPs to probe link between excess deaths and pressures on Accident and Emergency
12 January 2023
The Health and Social Care Committee will examine pressures on emergency care and whether they contributed to the high number of excess deaths reported for the last week of December.
In a topical session to be held later this month, the President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine Dr Adrian Boyle will be questioned about his suggestion that long waits in A&E were linked to increased deaths.
Senior leaders from NHS England will also appear before the Committee to give their analysis of the extent to which pressures on Accident and Emergency departments might have played a part and to examine some of the solutions to relieve winter pressures.
Other witnesses called to give evidence: Chris Hopson Chief Strategy Officer NHS England, Professor Julian Redhead, National Clinical Director for Urgent and Emergency Care NHSE, and Vin Diwakar, Medical Director National Transformation NHSE.
Chair's comments
Steve Brine MP Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee said:
“The President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine has suggested that overcrowding and longer waits for emergency care could be linked to hundreds of deaths a week. We’ll be probing the evidence for this alarming claim.
“We’re also hearing from senior representatives from NHS England to ask whether they recognise these figures and to question them on solutions to relieve some of the winter pressures to ensure that fewer patients face the current intolerable situations at A&E departments.”
Image: CCO