Revealed: The hospitals where patients have to wait more than FOUR hours in the ER… check the delays in your area
According to official figures, as many as 440,000 patients in England had to wait more than 12 hours in emergency departments last year.
New NHS data showed this was an increase of 30,000 on the previous year. This compares to just 1,200 people who had to wait this long a decade ago.
Nearly two-thirds of A&E patients in the worst-performing hospitals in England also had to wait more than four hours for care in the year to March 2024.
According to health care guidelines, 76 percent of emergency patients should be admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours of their visit.
But overall, only 72 per cent of patients in England were seen within this timeframe, according to the latest NHS data for 2023/24.
You can view the full trust-by-trust results via our interactive search table.
According to health care guidelines, 76 percent of emergency patients should be admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours of their visit.
It comes after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer described the £160 billion-a-year service as ‘broken’.
The prime minister warned that the system must be “reformed or destroyed” and pledged to carry out the “biggest overhaul” of the neglected system since its birth in the 1940s.
It followed a damning report by Lord Darzi, a pioneering surgeon and former Labour health minister, in which he concluded that the NHS was in a “critical state”.
Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust recorded the worst four-hour A&E performance in the country last year, according to the latest health service data.
Nearly two-thirds of patients (63 percent) had to wait too long before they could be seen at the hospital emergency department: a total of 55,056.
United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was the second worst in the country, with 61 per cent of patients seen outside the four-hour target.
This meant that more than 83,000 people had to wait too long.
Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Trust in London followed suit, with 58 per cent of patients having to wait longer than guidelines dictated.
Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust and Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust both treated 57 per cent of patients outside the time window.
Only three hospitals met the NHS target of treating more than three-quarters of patients within four hours.
These were Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (77 per cent), Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (81 per cent) and Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust (84 per cent).
However, none met the previous benchmark of 95 percent, which was weakened in March 2023.
NHS England has said the target will rise to 78 percent no later than March 2025.
All hospitals that performed poorly in terms of four-hour waiting times in the Emergency Department have been approached for comment.
The new analysis of NHS data comes after the latest monthly figures for emergency department waiting times, released earlier this month, showed In August, 2.1 million sick Britons presented to emergency departments.
Of these, 76.3 percent were treated within four hours. This means that the target has been achieved nationwide for the first time since its introduction.
Before the pandemic, however, this percentage was around 83 percent.
At that time, According to Dr Nick Murch, president of the Society for Acute Medicine, the data “shows the scale of the challenge in the short term”.
“The improvement in performance in the Emergency Department is the result of the hard work of clinical and operational colleagues working tirelessly under immense pressure,” he added.
‘However, the tension suggests that the challenges this winter will again be extreme: more than 28,000 patients waiting more than 12 hours in emergency departments during the summer months is an indication of what lies ahead.’
It comes after health leaders warned yesterday that the government’s repeated claims that “the NHS is broken” risk leaving patients “anxious” and stopping them from seeking care.
Insiders say they understand why the Health Secretary wants the public to know about the “difficult legacy” Labour has been given.
It comes after health leaders yesterday warned that the government’s repeated claims that the ‘NHS is broken’ risked making patients ‘anxious’ and deterring them from seeking care. Mr Streeting hit back in his speech to the Labour Party conference, insisting he would ‘not back down’
However, they fear he has struck the ‘wrong tone’, which is demotivating for staff and could cause ‘lasting damage’.
However, Mr Streeting responded to the criticism in his speech at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool, stressing that he would ‘not give in’.
He said, “I know it can be difficult sometimes to hear the doctor’s diagnosis.
‘But if you don’t have an accurate diagnosis, you can’t prescribe the right prescription.
‘And if you put protecting the reputation of the NHS above protecting patients, you’re not helping the NHS, you’re destroying it with kindness.
‘I will not give up. The NHS is broken, but not defeated, and together we will turn it around.’
He again blamed the Conservatives for the “dire” state of the NHS, pointing to huge waiting lists, emergency department delays and low patient satisfaction.
But he promised his 10-year plan to reform the NHS would deliver a “world-class” service.
