Soaring demand for emergency services at King's Mill Hospital

NHS England figures show 15,337 patients visited accident and emergency at Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Trust in March.

That was a rise of 20 per cent on the 12,791 visits recorded during February, and 31 per cent more than the 11,707 patients seen in March 2021.

The figures show attendances were above the levels seen at the start of the coronavirus pandemic – in March 2020, there were 10,366 visits to A&E at Sherwood Forest Hospitals Trust.

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

Across England, A&E departments received 2.2 million visits last month.

That was an increase of 19 per cent compared with February, and 29 per cent more than the 1.7m seen during March 2021.

Appointments

At SFH in March:

There were 97 booked appointments, up from 87 in February; 80 per cent of arrivals were seen within four hours, against an NHS target of 95 per cent; 791 patients waited longer than four hours for treatment following a decision to admit – 5 per cent of patients; Of those, 49 were delayed by more than 12 hours.

Separate NHS Digital data reveals that in February the median time to treatment was 10 minutes – the median average is used to ensure figures are not skewed by particularly long or short waiting times – and about 2 per cent of patients left before being treated.

Simon Barton, trust chief operating officer, said: “March 2022 saw record attendances at King's Mill emergency department, 20 per cent more than February and 25 per cent more than in March 2021.

“Our teams have coped admirably to give the best treatment to patients and as always I am very grateful to them.

“Hospital emergency departments are there for those needing urgent and immediately life-threatening conditions.

“If this is not the case, we would urge people to consider the alternatives, such as calling NHS 111 for guidance.”