PRESSURE on hospital emergency wards is “the biggest operational challenge facing the NHS today”, according to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt.

As the number and severity of admissions continues to rise, the A&E at Worcestershire Royal Hospital is being stretched to the limit.

Latest figures show that just 81.65 per cent of A&E patients were seen, treated, discharged, admitted or transferred within four hours during March, well short of the target of 95 per cent.

Speaking at Age UK’s annual conference yesterday, Mr Hunt said the problems are the same in A&Es across the country.

He said there are now four million more people a year using A&E departments as a result of “disastrous” changes to GP contracts under the previous government.

“Hard-working staff talk about the same issues: lack of beds to admit people, poor out-of-hours GP services, inaccessible primary care and a lack of co-ordination across the health system,” he said.

NHS England is currently conducting a review into urgent and emergency care and Mr Hunt said changes were needed across the health system to resolve the problems.

“There are simply too many cases where people with long-term conditions do not get the medicines, the checks or the support they need,” he said.

“They, or their relatives, end up having to put their energy into fighting the system instead of fighting their illness.”

He added: “We must address these system failures, and I am determined we will.”

Labour’s shadow health secretary, Andy Burnham, this week spoke of a “crisis” in A&E departments and said the number of patients waiting for more than four hours had risen nationally from just 340,000 in 2009/10 to 888,000 last year.

Chris Tidman, deputy chief executive of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, said emergency demand in Worcestershire was up by seven per cent year on year and warned the current situation was “not sustainable” in the long-term.

Trust chairman Harry Turner said: “Emergency demand is the biggest single issue that we face at the moment. It is affecting staff and it is clearly affecting patients as well.”

Action is already being taken to try and address the issues, with the acute trust and health partners across Worcestershire developing a new urgent care plan.

Meanwhile, the county’s new health and well-being board this month agreed a new integrated care plan, with an emphasis on “joining up” health care and prediction and prevention of illnesses.

It is hoped this will drive down hospital attendances in over-65s by at least 10 per cent.