Drop in attendances at King's Mill A&E - but hospital bosses say it remains 'very busy'

Fewer patients visited A&E at Sutton’s King’s Mill Hospital last month – but attendances were higher than over the same period last year, figures reveal.
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NHS England figures show 12,791 patients visited casualty at Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs King’s Mill, in February.

That was a drop of 3 per cent on the 13,144 visits recorded during January, but 42 per cent more than the 8,986 patients seen in February 2021.

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The figures show attendances were above the levels seen before the coronavirus pandemic – in February 2020, there were 12,692 visits to A&E at the trust.

King's Mill Hospital, Sutton.King's Mill Hospital, Sutton.
King's Mill Hospital, Sutton.

The majority of attendances last month were via major accident and emergency departments – those with full resuscitation equipment and 24-hour consultant-led care, such as at King’s Mill – while 33 per cent were via minor injury units, such as the urgent treatment centre at the trust’s Newark Hospital.

At SFH in February:

There were 87 booked appointments, up from 32 in January;

84 per cent of arrivals were seen within four hours, against an NHS target of 95 per cent;

Simon Barton, Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Trust chief operating officer.Simon Barton, Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Trust chief operating officer.
Simon Barton, Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Trust chief operating officer.

550 patients waited longer than four hours for treatment following a decision to admit – 4 per cent of patients;

Of those, 41 were delayed by more than 12 hours.

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Separate NHS Digital data reveals that in January the median time to treatment was eight minutes and about 2 per cent of patients left before being treated.

Simon Barton, trust chief operating officer, said: “Like many hospital trusts across the country, our A&E is always very busy.

“We urge the public to use 111 in the first instance if it is not a life-threatening accident or emergency, as you will be directed to the best place to be cared for.

“Despite how busy we are, down to the hard work of our colleagues across SFH, we continue to achieve some of the lowest emergency waiting times across the NHS.

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“We are working to continuously improve waiting times and patient experience.

“There are a very small number of patients who have waited longer than we would like and we apologise to them.

“I would like to reiterate my thanks to all colleagues at Sherwood for their continued efforts to provide outstanding care to our patients during what has been an extremely busy period.”

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