Drop in visits to A&E at King’s Mill Hospital

NHS England figures show 13,204 patients visited accident and emergency at Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Trust – which runs King’s Mill, as well as Mansfield Community and Newark hospitals – in December.

That was a drop of 5 per cent on the 13,857 visits recorded during November, but 32 per cent more than the 10,029 patients seen in December 2020.

The figures show attendances were below the levels seen before the coronavirus pandemic – in December 2019, there were 14,553 visits to A&E at the trust.

The majority of attendances last month were via King’s Mill A&E, with full resuscitation equipment and 24-hour consultant-led care, while 34 per cent were via Newark’s urgent treatment centre.

Across England, casualty departments received 1.9 million visits last month, down 8 per cent compared with November, but 27 per cent more than the 1.5m seen during December 2020.

Treatment

At SFH last month:

There were 32 booked appointments, down from 84 in November;

Some 82 per cent of arrivals were seen within four hours, against a target of 95 per cent;

A total of 737 patients waited longer than four hours for treatment following a decision to admit – of those, 56 were delayed by more than 12 hours.

NHS Digital data reveals that in November, the median time to treatment was nine minutes and about 3 per cent of patients left before being treated.

Simon Barton, trust chief operating officer, said: “Our hospitals continue to be under pressure, but we would like to thank our community for supporting us by using our services wisely and using 111 online, which has helped us see and treat our sickest patients quickly and safely.

“We have some of the lowest waiting times in the NHS for patients and ambulance handover.

“We continue to ask the public to help us by getting vaccinated against Covid-19 and flu and to use 111 online if it is not an emergency.

“The hospitals have been busy and it has been difficult for colleagues at times, particularly with some colleagues having to isolate too. We would like to thank everyone for their continued efforts to provide outstanding care, your dedication is remarkable.”

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