'Trolley waits' at A&E departments hit record high amid winter pressure

The number of people enduring "trolley waits" of more than 12 hours in A&E departments has reached a record high, according to data released today.

The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust had the worst recorded figures, with 2,129 patients having to wait 12 hours for a hospital trolley throughout October and November.

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust was second in Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire with 1,917 patients waiting more than 12 hours from a decision to admit them to actually being admitted for treatment.

Hull University Teaching Hospital Trust also recorded high numbers with 1,406 patients waiting 12 hours for a trolley.

The target for A& E waiting times is that 95% of people should be seen within 4 hours - Hull also had one of the lowest rates for seeing people in 4 hours at just 53%.

NHS England said last month was the second busiest November on record for A&E, with more than two million patients seen at emergency departments and urgent treatment centres.

It also said staff answered the highest number of 999 calls for any November on record, with an average of around one every three seconds.

Demand for NHS 111 services also remained high, with almost 1.4 million calls answered during November.

The new data showed that the overall NHS waiting list for people needing hospital treatment remains at a record high, with 5.98 million people waiting at the end of October.

NHS England pointed to data showing that hospitals are struggling to discharge patients who are medically fit to leave owing to problems with social care.

NHS England figures show that on Sunday 5 December, there were 10,123 patients who no longer needed to be in hospital but had not been discharged.

Today’s figures show that the NHS was already facing an exceptionally difficult winter, even before the emergence of the Omicron variant.