Shocking NHS figures show well over a thousand patients at North East hospital A&Es spent more than 12 hours waiting for beds to become available.
Data showing how A&E coped during December last year highlights how nationwide, for the first time since records began, less than half of people attending "type 1" emergency departments were seen within four hours - and this is coupled with higher than ever numbers of long "trolley-waits", including in the North East.
At the region's "type 1" A&E departments - traditional full-service A&Es - a staggering 56,808 people turned up for treatment across the month. By comparison, in December 2021 at the five NHS trusts in our area the corresponding figure was just 48,203.
And the impact this has had both on the rate of patients spending less than four hours - the target - in A&E and on those who have had to wait more than 12 hours for a hospital bed has been huge. According to the data, across the five NHS trusts just 54.4% of patients were dealt with in less than four hours..
The worst affected were the South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Trust and the County Durham and Darlington NHS Trust. In South Tyneside and Sunderland, just 44.8% of patients were seen in four hours. In County Durham and Darlington, the figure was 43.3%.
And when it comes to patients waiting hours for a bed, once medics have decided they need to be admitted to hospital, it's a similar story. In County Durham and Darlington, 791 patients waited more than 12 hours. And in Gateshead at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, the figure was 538.
At South Tyneside and Sunderland 75 people waited that long, with 94 at the RVI in Newcastle. And while A&E performance has deteriorated across the board, at the Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital in Cramlington, not a single patient is recorded as having waited more than four hours for a bed.
Across the North East and North Cumbria region, there was a 29% increase in A&E demand. The figures come against a backdrop which saw spikes in respiratory infections and in the invasive Group A Strep illness in children. For England as a whole found a record 54,532 people waited more than 12 hours in A&E departments for a bed last month.
Dr Neil O'Brien, executive medical director for the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB), said: "People needing help in our emergency departments across the region is nearly 30% higher this December than in the same period in 2021.
"This has put enormous pressure on our teams who have had to work incredibly hard to deal with this significant rise in the number of people needing medical attention, with many people presenting with flu, Covid-19 and respiratory conditions. We’ve also had an increase in staff sickness adding further challenges. We really do want to thank all our teams for their dedication in what has been a very challenging time."
He said that despite the pressures on emergency care, there had been an improvement in the picture when it came to long-term NHS waiting lists - which figures show had decreased. Dr O'Brien added: "We have also seen an improvement in our diagnostic performance and cancer backlog numbers are now at the lowest level since March 2022."
NHS national medical director, Professor Sir Stephen Powis, said: “As staff responded to record A&E attendances, 999 calls and emergency ambulance callouts as the ‘twindemic’ led to unprecedented levels of respiratory illness in hospital, they also continued to deliver for patients with more people than ever before receiving diagnostic tests and cancer treatment.
“These figures show just how hard our staff are working, not only in the face of extreme pressure but also in bringing down the Covid backlogs and checking more people for cancer than ever before in one month.”
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