Accident and emergency (A&E) departments in England are under substantial and increasing pressure. The proportion of A&E attendances that exceed a period of 4 hours from arrival to admission, transfer, or discharge has increased from 3.4% in 2011–2012 to 30.2% in 2023–2024 Q3.1,2
In addition, the total number of patients who wait over 12 hours in A&E from the decision to admit to admission to a ward has increased 2400-fold from 170 in 2012–2013 to 410 092 in 2022–2023.1
Much of the media’s coverage of A&E pressure has a profoundly negative valence. Examples of recent media headlines with significant negative sentiment regarding A&E pressure include ‘Dumped in A&E and left untreated for 5 days or more: shameful plight of some of our most vulnerable patients’,3 ‘One in ten A&E patients face “dangerous” 12-hour wait’,4 and ‘Record 420 000 patients in England had “more than 12-hour wait” in A&E last year’.5 Furthermore, the BBC identifies the departments under greatest pressure,6 the current waiting times in particular A&Es,7–9 and the A&E performance targets that have never been met.10
Concurrently, I have noticed in my own clinical practice this winter that patients who I advise to attend A&E are often substantially less willing to do so than they have been in previous years, and cite media coverage of A&E pressure as the foundation of their reluctance. A substantial proportion of these patients make it clear to me in the consulting room that they will not attend A&E despite my recommendation for them to do so.
At least for myself and the colleagues I work with (who have also noticed a similar change), this is a new phenomenon. Assuming that the clinical need of these patients does in fact warrant A&E attendance, and that they do not immediately attend as advised, these patients will likely attend A&E at a later point in a deteriorated condition that is more likely to result in emergency admission (there has been no recent substantial change in the proportion of A&E attendances that result in emergency admission, however).1,2
This, in turn, will increase both the >4-hour wait and >12-hour wait statistics (since patients who are severely unwell often require both prolonged time in A&E and the attention of multiple clinicians), which drive further negative media coverage in a self-perpetuating cycle.
While a free press is vital to hold those in control of public services to account for their performance, and media coverage of A&E pressure might helpfully deter patients without a relevant clinical need from attending, media coverage — particularly that with negative sentiment — might also unintentionally deter those patients with a relevant clinical need from doing so promptly.
Admittedly, this hypothesis is born of merely anecdotal evidence, and empirical research is needed to test it. Specifically, quantitative analysis of delayed A&E attendances and qualitative exploration of the reasons for these delays are required before any recommendations regarding media coverage on this matter can be offered.
- © British Journal of General Practice 2024
