Poor A&E figures

UNIVERSITY Hospitals of Leicester reported its worst A&E performance in more than two years last month - with nearly three in ten patients waiting more than four hours.

Just 71.5 per cent of people waited less than four hours from arrival to admission, discharge or transfer in the trust’s A&Es in December, the trust’s worst performance since the performance measure began to be recorded monthly in June 2015.

Performance in December was down from 78.1 per cent waiting less than four hours in December 2016.

Across England, A&Es reported their worst A&E performance on record in December, as 85.1 per cent of patients waited less than four hours from arrival to admission, discharge or transfer, the worst monthly performance since records began in August 2010.

The number of people waiting more than four hours topped 300,000 for the first time as well, the equivalent of one in seven people attending A&E. This was an increase of 11.9 per cent compared to 268,818 in December 2016.

Performance compared to 88.9 per cent waiting less than four hours in November, and 86.2 per cent in December 2016, with the 95 per cent target missed for the 29th month in a row, according to the figures released by NHS England.

Nearly 500 people waited more than 12 hours from decision to admit to admission, so called trolley waits. However the number, 497, was down from the 553 waits of this length in 2016.