Hospitals in Northumbria have the shortest A&E waiting times in England, a new analysis of data suggests. Numbers crunched by the BBC indicate that fewer than 10% of patients at Northumbria Healthcare hospitals faced waits in excess of four hours.
A total of 107 NHS trusts provided BBC News with data from December and January. The research is based on information from the trusts submitting data on four-hour waits - 14 services do not because they are testing out new ways of measuring performance for the Government.
Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust's hospitals, which include North Tyneside General Hospital, have had ambulances queuing outside their A&E departments. However, once patients are inside, patients have been treated and admitted much faster than in other hospitals across the country.
