A&E wait times are ‘worst ever’

More than a third of patients faced a wait of over four hours when attending United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust A&E departments last month, a union has claimed.

Unison claims the figures for December released by NHS England is the worst month on record for waiting times and delays.

It says 35 per cent of patients have to wait upwards of four hours from arrival to be either admitted, discharged or transferred. In December 2018 the proportion of patients for whom the four-hour target was missed was 32 per cent.

Unison says the trust has not met the national standard of 95 per cent since September 2014 and has some of the worst A&E waiting times in the country.

Of the 16,907 people who attended the trust’s A&E departments in December, only 10,940 patients were seen in the target time.

Unison East Midlands regional organiser Elliot Dean said: “The continued increase in demand for care underlines the urgent need for more beds and staff across hospitals in Lincolnshire. The government has to explain urgently how it’s going to fund and fix the health care system across the county as it’s reaching breaking point.

“Staff are working tirelessly to deliver the best possible patient care but they’re overstretched and under-resourced to deal with the current levels of demand. If it wasn’t for the hard work and dedication of staff across the whole healthcare system these figures would be even worse.

“And bear in mind these are figures for a mild winter so far. If a cold snap occurs, the system will be straining at the seams.”