424 patients sat waiting in city’s A&E for more than 12 hours in one month

A TOTAL of 424 people waited in Hull’s accident and emergency unit for more than 12 hours in March – but the proportion of waits longer than four hours is falling.

NHS figures showed 5,466 patients waited four hours or more to be seen in Hull Royal Infirmary A&E last month, 38.8 per cent of the 14,074 total.

But while the proportion of waits longer than four hours was down compared to February and March last year, the number of patients waiting longer than 12 hours was higher.

A Hull University Teaching Hospitals Trust spokesperson said the opening of an urgent treatment centre and moving walk-in services to Hull Royal Infirmary was taking pressure off A&E.

It comes as national figures showed people waiting in A&E departments in England for more than 12 hours was the highest on record for March.

Despite March’s 42,986 total being lower than February’s 44,417, it was still the seventh highest on record.

The figures compare to the previous record of 39,687 broken in March 2023.

They also compare to pre-coronavirus pandemic figures of 331 people waiting longer than 12 hours across England in March 2019 and one person in March 2011.

In Hull, last month’s morethan-12hour-wait figure of 424 compares to 383 in February and 386 in March 2023.

The proportion of patients waiting longer than four hours stood at 40.6 per cent in February, 5,213 patients, and 55.1 per cent, 5,751 in March 2023.

Of the 5,214 emergency admissions to Hull Royal Infirmary in March 2024, 1,406 patients waited for in excess of four hours.

That compares to 1,398 people out of 5,036 in February and 1,343 people in March 2023.