Local hospitals some of worst in the country for A&E waiting times

Newly released statistics show just 80.2 per cent of people attending local hospitals were seen within four hours in November.

Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs runs Rochdale Infirmary, The Royal Oldham Hospital, North Manchester General Hospital and Fairfield General Hospital, also kept one patient waiting for more than 12 hours.

The national target for emergency waiting times says 95 per cent of patients must be treated or admitted within four hours.

A spokesperson for Pennine Acute Hospitals Trust said: “We run three very busy A&E departments and an Urgent Care Centre and through these departments we see the most number of patients in the country, over a third of a million people.

“The demand and pressure on our urgent care services is increasing daily. Along with other Acute Trusts nationally we are seeing extremely high numbers of patients presenting at our three A&E departments and Urgent Care Centre, many of whom are requiring hospital admission and need medical care and treatment.

“In addition to the increased numbers of patients attending A&E, many of our patients are experiencing delays in being discharged home or into social care settings. Our inpatient bed pressures on our wards remain severe, with very high numbers of patients occupying beds both due to clinical care and delayed discharges. We are working with our local NHS commissioners and local authorities to improve this, but would also ask families to support their relatives in leaving hospital as soon as they have been declared fit to do so to reduce their risk of picking up infections or having falls in hospital.

“We recognise the four hour national emergency access standard is important to patients and their families. High standards of care and patient safety also remain the Trust’s priority.”