Tens of thousands of people had to spend more than half a day waiting for a hospital bed across England last month, new figures reveal. It comes as a total of 1,894 arrivals at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust – which run the city’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital – had to wait over 12 hours last month, which is more than at any Trust in England.
A total of 54,207 attendances at A&Es in the country had to wait over 12 hours from decision to admit to admission in December last year, according to new date by Reach, the publisher of BirminghamLive. That’s the third highest total on record and is up from 44,045 people in December 2023, but below the peak of 54,573 in December 2022.
More than half (53.0 per cent) of arrivals at North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust had to wait over 12 hours, which is the highest proportion in the country.
READ MORE: Find out your West Midlands hospital A&E wait times using handy online tool
The NHS experienced one of its busiest Decembers on record, with a total of 2.35 million attending A&Es across England. More than half of those (1.44 million) were at major “Type 1” A&E departments, which are consultant-led 24-hour service with full resuscitation facilities and designated accommodation for the reception of accident and emergency patients.
Health and Social Care Secretary, Wes Streeting “In the past six months, we have ended the junior doctors’ strikes so staff are on the front line not the picket line for the first winter in 3 years, and introduced the new RSV vaccine. But despite the best efforts of staff, patients are still receiving unacceptable standards of care.
“Although this winter’s campaign vaccinated more people than last winter, this strain of flu has hit hard, putting more than three times as many patients into hospital compared to this time last year.
“Annual winter pressures should not mean an annual winter crisis, which is why this government is making significant investment in the NHS, undertaking fundamental reform, and acting now to improve social care. It will take time to turn the NHS around, but the fact that waiting lists are now falling shows that change is possible.”
A spokesperson for University Hospitals Birmingham told BirminghamLive: “Our teams work exceptionally hard to see and treat a very large number of patients each day, and we are committed to ensuring local people can receive the emergency care they need in a safe and timely manner.
“Our communities can help us by choosing the right healthcare service for them, when it is not a life-threatening emergency, such as by accessing a local pharmacy or using NHS 111.”