More than two in five A&E patients wait longer than four hours at King’s Mill Hospital

The King’s Fund health think tank said there is “no shying away from the reality that the NHS is deep in crisis”, after A&E performance dropped to the worst on record across England at the end of 2022.

NHS guidance states 95 per cent of patients attending accident and emergency departments should be admitted to hospital, transferred elsewhere or discharged within four hours.

But Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Trust – which runs King’s Mill, Mansfield Community and Newark hospiatls – fell well behind that target in December, when just 57 per cent of the 10,169 attendances at its type-one A&E department at King’s Mill were dealt with within four hours, according to figures from NHS England.

It means 43 per cent of patients attending King’s Mill A&E waited longer than four hours to be seen last month, compared with 34 per cent in November, and 24 per cent in December 2021.

David Ainsworth, SFH director of strategy and partnerships, previously said: “Our teams are doing all they can to ensure patients can access the treatment they need 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 visit 111.nhs.uk to find out what to do next. Alternatively, call 111, or speak to your GP team or local pharmacy for advice.”

Type-one departments are those which provide major emergency services – with full resuscitation equipment and 24-hour consultant-led care – and account for the majority of attendances nationally.

Including the 6,796 attendances at the SFH’s Newark Urgent Care Centre, 66 per cent of A&E patients were seen by the trust within the target time in December.

The 95 per cent standard has not been met across the NHS in England since July 2015. Last month, just 65 per cent of A&E attendances were admitted transferred or discharged within four hours, the worst performance on record.

This compared with 73 per cent in December 2021 and 80 per cent in December 2020.

Performance was worse in type-one departments, where just 50 per cent of patients were seen within the target time in December, down from 61 per cent during the same month last year, and 72 per cent two years earlier.

Siva Anandaciva, chief analyst at the King’s Fund, said: “Since modern records began, A&E performance is the worst it has ever been and not a single NHS trust in the country is managing to meet the national target to be seen within four hours.

Prof Stephen Powis, NHS medical director, said staff are continuing to work hard in the face of “extreme pressures”.

At SFH in December, there were 152 booked appointments, up from 97 in November, while 1,467 patients waited longer than four hours for treatment following a decision to admit – 9 per cent of patients. Of those, 502 were delayed by more than 12 hours

Separate NHS Digital data reveals that in October, the median time to treatment was 15 minutes and about 4 per cent of patients left before being treated.