Five-year low for A&E figures
THOUSANDS OF A&E patients were left more than four hours before being dealt with at Calderdale and Huddersfield Trust in December, as it recorded its worst waiting time performance in five years.
Medical professionals warn that services are at breaking point nationally after December saw a record low proportion of patients seen in time – and they fear it will get worse before it gets better.
The required target for A&E departments is to admit, transfer or discharge at least 95 per cent of patients within four hours of arrival.
But NHS statistics show that patients at Calderdale and Huddersfield Foundation Trust waited longer on 2,404 occasions in December – 18 per cent of all attendances.
This was the worst performance for that month since 2015, the earliest period for which data is available.
The vast majority of NHS A&E departments across England fell short of the 95 per cent target in December.
Nationally, just 79.8 per cent of patients were seen within four hours – the worst performance for any month since records began in 2010.
A&E departments dealt with 2.2 million visits in December – a 6.5 per cent rise on the same month the previous year.
And during 2019, the national service saw 1.2 million more A&E attendances than in 2018.
President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine Dr Katherine Henderson said there are not enough staff, and far too few hospital beds in which to treat, the rising number of patients
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