New figures show Sherwood Forest Hospitals Trust is missing A&E targets

The NHS standard is for 95 per cent of patients to be seen within four hours.

However, the Government announced a two-year plan to stabilise NHS services earlier this year which set a recovery target of 76 per cent of patients being seen within four hours by March 2024.

NHS England figures show there were 15,730 visits to A&E at SHFT in September.

Of them, 11,374 were seen within four hours – accounting for 72 per cent of arrivals.

Rachel Eddie, chief operating officer at SFHT, said: “Demand for NHS services remains high across the entire country but we are steadily increasing the number of patients seen within four hours as we head into winter, despite continuing to manage the significant impact that we know that repeated industrial action has had on our staff, patients and services.”

“We know that winter in particular is a challenging time and just this week we have seen already our busiest days in A&E since December last year.

"Our teams have been working hard to put in place robust plans to prepare for these challenges.”

“We know that A&E isn’t always the best place to access the care patients need, which is why we continue to work with our health and social care partners to ensure that patients can continue to access the treatment they need in the appropriate place as quickly as possible.

“We know that high demand means that patients sometimes have to wait slightly longer for the treatment they need and I would like to thank our patients for their understanding as our hard-working NHS staff work to see them as quickly as possible.

“Before visiting A&E, we’re asking people to consider whether it is a genuine emergency as it’s often not the best place for their needs.

"If you need urgent medical attention when it’s not an emergency, please choose carefully”

Across England, in September, 33,107 arrivals in A&E waited more than 12 hours from a decision to admit to actually being admitted – up 15 per cent from August.

At SFHT, 640 patients waited longer than four hours, including 65 who were delayed by more than 12 hours

Dr Tim Cooksley, president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said NHS acute care services continued to be under ‘immense strain’ with clinicians expecting the coming months to be as ‘chaotic and challenging’ as last winter.

The overall number of attendances to A&E at SFHT in September was a rise of four per cent on the 15,080 visits recorded during August, and 10 per cent more than the 14,258 patients seen in September 2022.

Prof Sir Stephen Powis, NHS national medical director, said despite the pressure, the figures show NHS staff are ‘working incredibly hard to deliver for patients’.

He added that the NHS delivered on its ambition to roll out 10,000 virtual ward beds by the end of September.

More than 240,000 patients have now been treated on virtual wards, the NHS said, adding that research shows people who are treated at home recover at the same rate or faster than those in hospital.