The hospitals in England with the worst A&E wait times for April have been revealed.
The NHS has slowly clawed its way to the best A&E wait times of the year so far, after March saw a dip from the months previous - but these remain way below official targets.
In April, NHS data revealed that 60.9 per cent of patients were seen within the four hours target.
This is slightly up on the months previous that saw only 56.8 per cent seen in time in March, and 58.7 per cent in January and February.
For April, the three trusts with the worst wait times were Barking, Havering And Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (39.6 per cent), Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust (39.9 per cent), and Torbay And South Devon NHS Foundation Trust (43.6 per cent).
A further nine trusts failed to see at least half their patients within the target four hours.
Ever since it was introduced in 2004, the four hour target has been a vital part of measuring A&E performance.
It means that patients should wait no more than four hours between arriving at A&E and a decision being made about their onward care.
However, the last time the 95 per cent target was met was in July 2015.
Then the NHS quietly announced it was lowering that to 76 per cent as the health service still battles with the fall out from the Covid pandemic, a greying population, the cost of living crisis and more.
Worryingly, the latest figures also revealed that almost 27,000 people had to wait over 12 hours from being admitted to A&E to having a decision made about their care.
This is down around 12,000 people from March.
Generally, the data does suggest that things are gradually improving within NHS A&E wait times, but that they are far from the levels the organisation set for itself.
The huge wait times are down to a number of factors, but one key one is the persistent problem of social discharge.
Trusts and hospitals are unable to free up beds by moving people on into care settings, which is leading to longer and longer wait times.
In January of this year, NHS data shows that in England there were over 14,000 beds that were taken up by patients who no longer needed to be there.
Of these, almost 3,500 were occupied by people suffering from the flu.
See the 20 trusts with the longest wait times below
- Barking, Havering And Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust 39.6%
- Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust 39.9%
- Torbay And South Devon NHS Foundation Trust 43.6%
- East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust 44.0%
- University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust 45.2%
- East And North Hertfordshire NHS Trust 45.6%
- Shrewsbury And Telford Hospital NHS Trust 46.2%
- Wrightington, Wigan And Leigh NHS Foundation Trust 46.6%
- York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust 46.8%
- West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust 46.9%
- United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust 46.9%
- Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 49.9%
- London North West Healthcare NHS Trust 50.2%
- Lewisham And Greenwich NHS Trust 50.6%
- Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust 50.7%
- County Durham And Darlington NHS Foundation Trust 50.7%
- St Helens And Knowsley Hospital Services NHS Trust 51.3%
- King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust 52.1%
- Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust 52.2%
- The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 52.6%
Matthew Trainer, Chief Executive, BHRUT, said: “Our A&E performance for those patients who are most seriously ill (Type 1) is not good enough, and I am sorry about the waits people often face.
“Our performance for April and May has been our best since lockdown restrictions were lifted in July 2021. We are working hard to keep improving, but we know we have a long way to go.
“This improvement happened after we opened a new, bigger Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) department at Queen’s Hospital, where people are seen and treated on the same day rather than having to spend a night in a bed.”
A Royal Cornwall Hospitals spokesperson said: “A network of 10 minor injury units across Cornwall mean our main emergency department sees a high proportion of acutely unwell or injured people, who will often need more assessment and are also more likely to need admission to hospital.
“Our staff have worked tirelessly to give the very best care they can whilst managing significant operational pressures, as well as high numbers of patients whose discharge from hospital has been delayed. Combined these factors mean our patients have been waiting longer in the emergency department than we would want them to.
“In recent weeks we have seen signs of improvement in our emergency department waiting times. We are working with Cornwall’s health and care organisations, including voluntary sector partners, to increase community care capacity which will ultimately free up hospital beds and allow us to see, treat and admit people more quickly.”
A spokesperson for Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust said: "The NHS is experiencing record demand and we are working with our partners to ensure people get the care they need, in the most appropriate place, which may not always be in our hospitals.
“With our overall performance in line with our improvement plan, our focus is on improving patient flow through our hospital. An increase in getting people who no longer need to be in hospital home will support the faster transfer of people who arrive at our emergency department."
