A&E Waiting Times Are Worst For 10 Years

Written By Unknown on Selasa, 06 Januari 2015 | 20.49

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Accident and emergency waiting times in England have fallen to their worst levels for more than a decade, latest figures confirm.

New data shows just 92.6% of patients were treated within the four-hour time limit against a target of 95%.

It comes as a surge in demand at emergency departments has forced several hospital trusts to activate major incident plans, leading to routine operations being put on hold, and extra staff being drafted in.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt admitted the figures were "disappointing", but said the NHS was continuing to see nine out of 10 people within four hours.

"We do very well by international comparisons," he said.

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Gallery: When Should You Go To A&E?

Unresponsive - Loss of consciousness

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He told Sky News better social care is at the heart of the solution.

But Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham accused the Government of failing to tackle the crisis.

Sky's Health Correspondent Thomas Moore said the waiting time figures were a sign of how emergency departments were struggling to cope with the huge rise in admissions, which have soared by a third over the last 10 years.

When broken down, the quarterly records show the country's major A&E departments fared even worse, with fewer than nine in 10 patients - 88.9% - being seen within the target.

Dr Sarah Pinto-Duschinsky, director of operations and delivery for NHS England, said: "Today's figures show that, in the three months to the end of December, more than nine out of 10 A&E patients in England continued to be seen and treated in under four hours - the best measured performance of any major Western country.

"In the immediate run-up to Christmas, the NHS treated 446,500 A&E attendees, up 38,000 on the same week last year.

"And there were 112,600 emergency admissions - the highest number in a single week since we started publishing performance figures in 2010.

"We faced similar demand over Christmas itself. In the week ending December 28 A&E attendances were up more than 31,000 on the same period last year, meaning we successfully treated more patients in under four hours than ever before."

Hospitals were required to treat 98% of patients within four hours until 2010 but the Coalition scaled the target back to 95%.

The figures were released as a number of hospitals had major incident plans in place to cope with demand.

Gloucester Royal, Cheltenham General Hospital, Scarborough Hospital and the University Hospitals of North Midlands in Staffordshire have implemented the emergency measure.

Others, including the Royal Surrey County Hospital, urged people to stay away from A&E unless their case was a genuine emergency.

Mike Proctor of Scarborough NHS Trust told Sky News cases were prioritised according to clinical need.

"It does mean people will have to wait longer," he said.

Among the worst performers in terms of meeting the target were Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust (79.1%), Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (80.5%), Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust (83.4%) and North Bristol NHS Trust (82.7%).

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Written By Unknown on Senin, 05 Januari 2015 | 20.48

The battleground for the most unpredictable General Election in decades shifted to spending today as five senior ministers lined up to pull apart Labour's plans.

In an unprecedented move George Osborne, Theresa May, William Hague, Sajid Javid and Nicky Morgan joined together to present a document they claimed showed £20.7bn of unfunded Labour spending promises.

Mr Hague, the Leader of the House of Commons, said that using Treasury costings this amounted to £1,199 more borrowing and debt for every working household.

Between them they highlighted a number of unfunded Labour spending promises including:

:: Food waste in landfill ban = £500m

:: Cancellation of police spending cuts = £299m

:: Forcing teachers to have teacher status = £177m.

Labour was swift to dismiss the Tory spending figures pointing out that David Cameron had announced £7.2bn of unfunded tax cuts at the Conservative Party Conference.

Critics were also quick to point out the Tories had based their figures on a number of assumptions. Labour has pledged only to "make cycling safer" and yet this had been costed at £63m.

And questions were raised over whether it was right to use Government figures for party political gain.

It came after Ed Miliband attempted to take the fight to the Tories by rallying party activists to wage a "once in a generation fight" claiming he could "rebuild the country".

On day one of the General Election battle, as politicians returned to Westminster after the Christmas break, the Labour leader promised action on the deficit, the NHS and the return to 1930s levels of public spending.

However, Mr Osborne accused Mr Miliband of making £2.3bn of unfunded spending cuts in that speech alone with pledges on GP appointments, one-week cancer tests and apprenticeships.

Mr Miliband urged party members at a rally in Salford to take to the doorsteps and hold four million conversations with voters, saying his party could match the Tories' spending power only by marching on the streets to speak directly to people.

He said it was time to determine who the country works for. "It is a choice between a Tory plan where only a few at the top can succeed and our public services are threatened - or a Labour plan that puts working people first, deals with the deficit and protects our NHS."

And he accused the Prime Minister - who was noticeably absent from today's proceedings - of playing "risky and irresponsible games" with the European Union for political gain.

With 122 days to go until the vote, Sky News has launched a campaign looking at the 150 marginal seats which could be so influential in the outcome of the election.

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Gallery: In The Margins: The Monday Tour

Joey Jones takes a journey across the UK as part of Sky News' In The Margins campaign

Nick Clegg also kick started his party's own fight for a return to power in a coalition, burnishing Lib Dem credentials as the party that could anchor either the Tories or Labour from the worst of each party's cutting and borrowing excesses.

He accused the Tories of attempting to sell swingeing public service spending cuts as "continuity" when they were "even deeper" because of £7bn of unfunded tax cuts.

He said: "That's not sticking to the plan. That is a new plan to shelter the very wealthy and impose unnecessary cuts to public services."

He also warned that Labour will "borrow and borrow" and the country could end up paying billions more each year in interest on the debt.

It comes as Britain's former top civil servant, Lord O'Donnell warned in an exclusive interview with Sky News that the face of Westminster could be very different after May and the Government could be a coalition of three parties.

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In The Margins: Crucial Election Battlegrounds

Sky's Joey Jones is travelling the country looking at the issues that matter to voters in some of the marginal constituencies.

Here he focuses on 11 of the 150 seats that could play a deciding role in May's General Election.

:: Glasgow East

Scotland feels like uncharted territory politically at the moment. The polls are suggesting an unprecedented SNP breakthrough, and a cataclysmic result for Labour.

I went to Glasgow East because people in this constituency have a history of voting SNP (the nationalists won a by-election in 2008), but Labour beat them back with a thumping win in 2010 and defeat would seem, based on previous wisdom, to be unthinkable.

Read Faisal Islam's exclusive interview with Lord O'Donnell here

The constituency is not uniform tower blocks and concrete by any means, but Easterhouse, where I spoke to people, is the sort of area you would traditionally expect people to vote Labour or not vote at all.

The conversations I had reflected an electorate that is definitely thinking of switching to the SNP mainly because of disenchantment with Labour.

Perhaps most worryingly for Ed Miliband and Jim Murphy, there was not much of a sense among local people that a vote either way would make a massive difference to their lives. The key task for the new Labour leader in Scotland is to reverse that perception.

:: Sutton and Cheam

Sutton and Cheam is a traditionally Conservative seat that has been held by Paul Burstow of the Liberal Democrats since 1997.

At every election since then it has been in the Conservatives' sights. It was one of the seats I travelled to with David Cameron during the 2010 campaign, and at that time the Tories felt reasonably confident of success.

Based on the Liberal Democrats' collapse in support in the current parliament, one might imagine that in 2015 the seat would finally fall.

But Lord Ashcroft's most recent polling shows a swing of 7% from the Conservatives to the Lib Dems, a barely believable situation given the Lib Dems' current predicament.

We often talk about how the Lib Dems manage to "dig in" in seats like this, and I wanted to ask local people what that actually means from their point of view. When we talk of the effect of incumbency, what does that mean for voters?

What came through is that a concentration on local issues, a lot of hard work, and the ability to forge what feels to voters a personal connection creates a bond that even a collapse in national support for the Liberal Democrats may not erode significantly.

But to be honest, if it were as simple as that then a lot more hardworking MPs might manage to withstand national trends than do. It's as though there's a sort of alchemy at play that frankly I have yet to put my finger on.

:: Brighton Pavilion

The impact of the Green Party in May 2015 may be felt more in seats other than Brighton, their initial beachhead.

It would definitely be a blow for Labour if they fail to retake the seat Caroline Lucas won in 2010, but the real fear in Labour HQ is that the Greens may have the sort of effect on Labour that we always used to assume UKIP would have on the Tories - sucking away enough of the voters they had imagined would support them and thereby handing their opponents victory.

I went to Brighton itself because I wanted to know how people who have had experience of Green politicians in power (the Greens are also in the majority on the council) would advise voters elsewhere who are now considering voting Green.

There has been a lot of talk that council incompetence and mismanagement has created a backlash against the Greens. I specifically sought out people who had voted Green to see if there is any sense of disenchantment, and found none. Every individual I spoke to said they would vote Green again.

Not so long ago the idea the Greens could be a significant factor in the election could have been readily dismissed, but given the unprecedented support for UKIP and the SNP and the volatility of the current situation, nothing should be ruled out.

Click here for Sky's In The Margins console

:: Southampton Itchen

Southampton Itchen was a close-run thing for Labour in 2010.

The long-serving MP John Denham won by less than 200 votes. Now he is standing down, and Labour's vulnerability in the south of England as demonstrated in local elections gives the Tories grounds for hope. It is a must-hold seat for Labour - the party cannot afford to be losing seats at all.

If Ed Miliband is to become Prime Minister, they need to be winning new seats, not worrying about shoring up ground they already hold.

I went to the broadly working class Thornhill Estate to see what people think of Mr Miliband (not much, it seems), and how resilient support for the party is.

The news for Labour was bad. There is a real flirtation with UKIP going on here, but it could have been worse. There was no great enthusiasm for the Conservatives either. In short, Labour should be worried, but not panicked.

:: Hendon

The Tories hold Hendon by 100 votes. It is the sort of seat Labour have to win, and probably will.

A couple of things interested me here. There has been a lot of talk about the Conservatives' difficulties in attracting black and ethnic minority voters.

Hendon is an ethnically diverse seat and I asked people who were black or from another ethnic minority whether they would ever consider voting Tory.

Every person I spoke to said no, almost in a heartbeat. The only good news for CCHQ is that when I asked why they would not, the answers were generally unspecific - there was a lot of "I just wouldn't".

That suggests that if people could be jolted into having a second look at the party, there is room for progress - Boris Johnson managed this, and won votes in this very area in the mayoral election that his party failed to match in the London assembly elections.

It doesn't look like anything along those lines will happen in 2015 though, which leaves the sitting Conservative MP Matthew Offord with a mountain to climb.

:: Watford

Watford looks like it will be a nail-biter right to the wire.

All three main parties are in with a shout (and UKIP are not way behind either).

This was the only seat where I chose to speak to candidates, as I was interested in how such an unpredictable campaign might play out.

Much of what the three candidates said was very familiar: Labour talking cost of living; the Tories on the economy; and Lib Dems on their local record (their candidate, the mayor, pointed out that the Liberal Democrats had jumped in the most recent Lord Ashcroft polling, subsequent to her candidacy being announced).

My suspicion based on speaking to voters all over the UK is that the excitement of the Westminster class at such a close race will not be matched by similar enthusiasm among voters.

Generally people are very grumpy about mainstream politicians, and there is every chance that the parties will feel obliged to try to play on that disenchantment and channel it to their own purposes - whatever the candidates' best efforts to avoid negative campaigning, the current political environment dictates that knocking chunks off one's Westminster opponents is not just tempting, it is an imperative.

:: Birmingham Edgbaston

Incumbency is the word that gives hope to MPs who are fearful of being swept away in this most turbulent of political environments.

It suggests there is an elusive quality that can allow sitting MPs to hold back apparently irresistible forces.

Gisela Stuart is a case in point, having beaten off the Tory challenge in Birmingham Edgbaston time and again since 1997. Politicians of all parties view her as an example of how one individual's force of personality can overcome the odds - so much so that you would be hard pressed now to find a political commentator optimistic she will be beaten in 2015 even in what demographics would suggest should be a pretty straightforward Conservative seat.

I met her during the usual flurry of Friday (constituency day) engagements and she explained how a successful MP will want to mould hard work into a more enduring project. If they don't, she warns, the voters will be unforgiving.

:: Cardiff North

The rise of UKIP, unprecedented SNP support and the growing confidence of the Green party make many more seats far harder to call in the past, but straight Labour/Tory marginals like Cardiff North will still point the way to Downing Street for either Ed Miliband or David Cameron.

Neither man will have a significant chance of forging a Commons majority if their party is not winning bellwether seats like this.

I was interested to see how national issues are playing out at the local level. On the NHS Mr Cameron is caustic about the Welsh Labour government's handling of the NHS - talking to people heading into Heath hospital, that approach did not seem to be doing him any favours.

A good number of the people I spoke to were public sector workers who might not be inclined to vote Tory anyway, but it was notable that the PM had really got their backs up. Senior Tories in Wales have told me they fear the aggressive language directed at the Welsh NHS might be counterproductive, and that seemed to be borne out by the people I spoke to.

On another issue, public spending cuts, the picture is much more mixed. Everybody I met outside Whitchurch Library wanted to talk about its possible closure, the result of financial pressures. But blame was not apportioned by local people only one way by any means.

Some blamed the government, but there was just as much criticism for the Labour council, and a feeling that belt-tightening was unavoidable. The closure of much-loved local services might normally be expected to offer an opposition party an easy win - not so in this case at least.

:: Taunton Deane

If David Cameron is to become Prime Minister, he needs to profit from the collapse in Lib Dem support and that means winning seats like Taunton Deane. In October 2014 his task got easier when the sitting MP Jeremy Browne said he was standing down.

To get a sense of what a blow his departure is for the Liberal Democrats, you only have to speak to people on the street. The level of recognition for the MP was, in my opinion, fairly remarkable. A significant majority of the people I spoke to knew their MP by name. Given that half the time when we go out on the street with pictures of the party leaders and encounter blank faces all round, this represents sterling work by the Lib Dem incumbent.

All in all, with a very slim majority, you would have to put your money on the Tories here now, but I would say that the people of Taunton seemed remarkably politically engaged. I suspect any candidate that expects them to fall into his or her lap will have another thing coming. They will need wooing!

:: Exeter

Change is a big underlying theme of this election, and it is the reason I went to Exeter. One of the big drivers of UKIP success is people's resistance to change - particularly when it comes to immigration, but also things like insecurity in work, global forces that seem to have little connection to people's lives and in some cases a longing to go back to a time when things felt more straightforward.

Exeter has changed a lot. Every time I go back to see my family I see more building, more people, more cars on the road. Some streets that I remember as thriving shopping centres are deserted; others are bursting with activity.

My assumption was that local people might feel uncomfortable with change but - I hold my hands up - my conversations suggest I was wrong.

In this boom town, most people seem to feel that they have an investment in the city's success. From people on the street to business owners, the overall mood was of unaccustomed optimism compared with what I encountered in other parts of the country.

There was the odd grumble and gripe, but if bad traffic is the worst people have to complain about, there is not all that much traction for UKIP to work with. The only other potential complicating factor is if the Greens come into play.

Broadly, though, the chances are that Exeter will remain a Labour/Tory fight - and given boundary changes have broadly helped the Labour incumbent, the task is a difficult one for the Conservatives.

:: Great Grimsby

Great Grimsby shows the protean nature of the UKIP threat. Not so long ago - honestly, it was not that long - conventional wisdom was that UKIP was a gift for Labour because it sucked votes from the Tories, allowing them to win seats where they might otherwise have struggled.

Now in Grimsby UKIP is damaging the Tories all right, but what was not in the script is that the party has Labour in its sights, and a serious chance of winning.

The picture is fascinating. Lord Ashcroft's constituency polling shows Labour's share of the vote has increased. You have to assume Labour has lost some support to UKIP.

So right now they are relying on the Lib Dems turning to Labour en masse, but that is a finite resource. If the UKIP charge continues, Labour will need some former Tories to support them as well to win.

What was undoubtedly the case when I spoke to local people is that Labour's grip on its core vote has waned. I suspect this is an ongoing process, and the danger for Labour is that casting around for Lib Dem defectors (or anyone else for that matter), may only corrode faith in the party's ability to protect its core values still further.

A word about vox pops from Joey Jones:

"Vox pops" - short for vox populi, or "voice of the people" - tend to be viewed as the lowest of the low in broadcasting, the lazy option, twisting people's views to fit the ends of a journalist who asks only as many individuals as it takes to get the answer he or she wanted from the outset.

I can understand why that perception has set in, and have not been immune to it myself in recent years, but in 2014/15 I am renewing my vows - I have fallen back in love with the vox pop as an essential way of getting to grips with this most compelling of elections.

There is no polling value to vox pops; I make no claim they are scientific - I don't attempt to seek out a "representative sample". However, at the same time, I don't go to any of these constituencies with a definite preconception as to what people will say (with one exception - Exeter - and there my perception based on having been brought up in the city turned out to be wrong!). When it comes to people's views I take as I find and endeavour to present them fairly.

The vox pops in these reports should be viewed as nothing more nor less than conversations with voters. Talking to voters is what we journalists should be doing a lot of - possibly all the time, but certainly in a campaign where people are searching for alternatives to the usual political parties and the rule book is being thrown out.

There is no better way to get a feel for what is so different about this election than getting away from Westminster and asking people what they think.

:: Follow Joey Jones' journey to more of the country's marginal constituencies throughout the day on Sky News, skynews.com and our mobile apps - channels Sky 501, Virgin Media 602, Freesat 202, Freeview 132.

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Joey's Journey: Tour The UK's Marginal Seats

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Election 'Winner' May Not Get Keys To No 10

By Faisal Islam, Political Editor

Britain's next Prime Minister might not be the leader of the party which wins the most seats at the General Election, Britain's former top civil servant has told Sky News.

Lord O'Donnell, who as Cabinet Secretary arranged the negotiations that led to the current Coalition, says that voters should not necessarily expect the 'winner' of the election to lead coalition talks.

And the process this time round could be so complicated - potentially involving a deal with three parties - that it may take "rather longer" than the five days the last agreement took.

:: Click here for the In The Margins console

In an exclusive interview, Lord O'Donnell denied that there would be "political chaos" but said that there could be "an unusual outcome" to the election.

"When the result comes out, some people think that x gets first go," he said.

"There isn't a written constitutional requirement that the party with the most seats go first.

"It's up to the parties to negotiate."

Lord O'Donnell was speaking as Sky News launched its multi-media project In The Margins, in which we will focus on the 150 marginal constituencies that could decide the outcome of the election in May.

When asked if voters should expect the leader of the largest party to be Prime Minister, he said: "There's no constitutional requirement for that to happen, so it could well be that we do have a situation where the Prime Minister is leader of a party which has fewer seats than one of the others."

The former top civil servant says that such outcomes were the "inevitable consequence" of voters not concentrating their vote on the two main parties.

"It's a more complex world... People should be ready for the fact that it might take rather longer to form a government than the five days last time."

Negotiations of the formation of a Government in May could lead to much looser agreements between parties, simultaneous negotiations, and more "agreements to disagree" warned Lord O'Donnell.

In 2015, the fixed term parliament, pre-election media scrutiny of 'red lines', the requirement of party leaders to get the backing of backbenchers and the lack of a market crisis, might all require "patience".

"It may be a rather more complicated situation: an agreement with two parties and a side deal with SNP on a case by case basis ... When I look back on [2010] I think I had it easy."

The Cabinet Manual, published in 2011, did not have any reference to the so-called Clegg rule. In 2010 the Lib Dem leader decided that first negotiations should occur with the strongest party in the House of Commons.

:: Follow Sky News presenters and correspondents through the day as we launch In The Margins - examining 150 key seats across the country that could help decide the election. Watch live on Sky News, skynews.com and our mobile apps - channels Sky 501, Virgin Media 602, Freesat 202, Freeview 132.

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Apple Sued Over iPhone And iPad Storage Space

Written By Unknown on Sabtu, 03 Januari 2015 | 20.49

A lawsuit has been filed against Apple, accusing the technology giant of promising more available storage space than it actually delivers in its iPhones, iPads, and iPod touch devices.

The plaintiffs argue that while Apple advertises 16 gigabytes of digital storage on lower price models of gadgets such as iPhones, about a fifth of that is eaten up by the latest operating software.

The percentage of space touted as available for digital content such as photos, video, or music shrinks further on Apple gadgets built with eight gigabytes of storage, it is claimed.

Apple's latest operating system, iOS 8, which was beset with problems when it launched in September, takes up as much as 23.1% of storage capacity on some devices.

The lawsuit is being brought on behalf of two men from Florida, Paul Orshan and Christopher Endara, in a District Court in Northern California.

They also complain that once Apple gadget owners reach limits to data storage, they are prompted to pay monthly fees for digital locker space online at the Californian based-firm's iCloud service.

The lawsuit says: "Using these sharp business tactics, (Apple) gives less storage capacity than advertised, only to offer to sell that capacity in a desperate moment, eg when a consumer is trying to record or take photos at a child or grandchild's recital, basketball game or wedding.

"Each gigabyte of storage Apple shortchanges its customers amounts to approximately 400-500 high resolution photographs."

Lawyers behind the suit are seeking class action status along with punishments that include Apple turning over all profits from sales of gadgets at issue in the case.

Apple has so far declined to comment to the media on the matter.

Apple has been embroiled in countless lawsuits with tech rival Samsung over recent years. The smartphone and tablet makers have accused each other of infringing patents in intellectual property battles around the world.

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Funeral Held For Glasgow Lorry Crash Family

By Becky Johnson, Sky Correspondent

Hundreds of mourners have gathered for the funeral of three members of the same family killed when a bin lorry crashed into Christmas shoppers in Glasgow.

Erin McQuade, 18, and her grandparents Jack Sweeney, 68 and Lorraine Sweeney, 69, all died when the out-of-control refuse vehicle ploughed into pedestrians in the city's George Square three days before Christmas.

Some 700 people packed in to St Patrick's RC Church in Dumbarton, where the family live, for a joint requiem mass for the teenager and her grandparents, with more mourners standing outside.

Three hearses filled with white roses lined the pavement outside the church.

Erin, who was in her first year studying English literature at Glasgow University, had been out Christmas shopping with her family when the crash happened.

Her mother, Jacqueline, was just yards away from her daughter and parents as the disaster unfolded. She arrived at the church holding hands with her 14-year-old son Aidan.

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Gallery: Tributes For Lorry Crash Victims

Flowers were left near the scene of a bin lorry crash which killed six people and left 10 more injured

A service to remember the victims of the disaster was held at Glasgow's St Andrew's Cathedral

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