100s facing 12-hour A&E waits

MORE than 600 patients had to wait over 12 hours in A&E in Gloucestershire just to be admitted, transferred or discharged during October, according to NHS data.

In total, 18,717 people attended Accident & Emergency departments across the region in one month. Some 653 of those had to wait more than 12 hours before being admitted to a ward bed.

But while the situation in some regions of the country is getting worse, with patient handover delays and staffing shortages stretching patient wait times, in Gloucestershire things have remained much the same for months.

In July, 629 people had to wait more than 12 hours in A&E. In August it was 674 people and in September it was 642.

Meanwhile, a total of 13,680 people arriving at A&E in October waited less than four hours to be admitted, discharged or transferred. That works out as 73 per cent of attendees – the NHS target is for 95 per cent of attendees to be dealt with in that time.

Deborah Lee, chief executive officer for the Gloucestershire NHS Trust said that, despite the strain that the NHS is under, the trust has improved.

“There is no doubt that the NHS is under incredible pressure and we remain disappointed that too many patients in Gloucestershire continue to experience long waits in our emergency departments,” she said.

“We have made considerable efforts to make the waiting experience as comfortable as possible including introducing a role whose sole responsibility is to ensure that patients understand what is going on with their care, how long they might wait and that refreshments are made available for those experiencing very long waits.

“The fact that we have performed better than the national average is a real credit to the team who continue to do an exceptional job in incredibly challenging circumstances.

“Our most recent patient experience results reflect positive improvements with almost 70 per cent of patients reporting a good or very good experience – this compares to less than 50 per cent nationally. Our aim remains for all patients to have a positive experience even if they are impacted by long waits.

“We have also seen some significant and sustained improvements in the length of time it takes ambulances to hand over patients with 70 per cent of ambulances completing this within 60 minutes [in early November] and no patient waiting more than three hours. This is in contrast to waits of 10-plus hours some months ago.

“These improvements in ambulance handover delays have enabled crews to return to the road far more quickly and, as a result, Gloucestershire is achieving Category 2 response times of 35 minutes compared to several hours just a few months ago.

“We are determined to get this right and will continue to work closely with system partners to ensure we provide the kind of care and experience we all want for our patients.”

The situation in Gloucestershire is better than the country as a whole. A total of 43,792 people across England had to wait more than 12 hours to be admitted to A&E.

That is up from 32,776 in September and 28,756 in August.

Meanwhile, just 62 per cent of A&E attendees nationwide were admitted within four hours.