THE district's hospitals are still meeting national A&E department waiting time targets, according to the latest weekly figures released yesterday.

Statistics for the week ending May 3 show that 2,508 patients visited Bradford Royal Infirmary's emergency department, down from 2,603 the week before. Of these visits 901 were emergency admissions, almost the same as the 900 from a week earlier.

The proportion of patients seen within four hours was 96.3 per cent, compared to 97.3 per cent the week before. The number of people who had to wait more than the four hour target was 92, higher than the week before, which was 71.

For the same time period, 1,020 patients visited Airedale General Hospital's accident and emergency department, down from 1,166 the previous week. Of these visits 440 were emergency admissions, compared to 441 a week earlier.

This left 98.1 per cent of people being seen within four hours, compared to 96.7 per cent the previous week. Nineteen people spent more than four hours waiting from arrival to admission, transfer or discharge, half what it was a week earlier at 38.

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Both hospitals are still within the NHS target of 95 per cent for the proportion of patients seen within four hours at A&E departments.

A spokesman for BRI said the hospital did not want to comment on the weekly figures.

Stacey Hunter, director of operations at Airedale NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We continue to be busy both in our Emergency Department and on our wards but patients who need to be admitted are not as poorly as they were during the winter months and are able to go home sooner.” 

“We also provided additional staff for the bank holiday weekend, when other services were reduced, which helped to manage the additional attendances and support emergency and urgent care for our local community. 

“We would like to thank all staff for their continued support.” 

A spokesman for Healthwatch Bradford and District, the independent organisation which gives local people a voice on health and social care, said: “It’s really encouraging that both our local trusts are performing well against this national target.

"Healthwatch works closely with both Airedale NHS Foundation Trust and Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and we know how hard staff work to provide excellent treatment for patients in services that are under a great deal of pressure.

“Waiting times and performance targets are only part of the picture; what’s important to Healthwatch is the experiences of patients and their families."

The Healthwatch team spent 12 hours in the A&E department at BRI in December, talking to patients and carers about their experiences and is expected to publish a full report into the work later this week.

In the meantime, a spokesman added: “People who spoke to Healthwatch were mostly positive about their experience, over two-thirds of people rated staff attitude as excellent and almost half of people rated their experience of A&E on this day as excellent.

"There are areas where improvements need to be made, and waiting times were the biggest issue with a third of those who took part in Healthwatch survey saying these were poor.

"People also told Healthwatch about poor communication, with many patients not given any information about how long they’d have to wait, and this caused some anxiety among waiting patients.”

Nationally, NHS England figures show 94.1 per cent of patients spent four hours or less from arrival to admission, transfer or discharge in the week ending May 3, a slight drop on the previous week when 94.3 per cent were seen within the time limit.

The 95 per cent target has not been met since the week ending September 28, but yesterday's figure is the second closest it has got since the week ending October 5, when 94.5 per cent patients were seen within the timeframe.

Dr Barbara Hakin, national director of commissioning operations for NHS England, said: "These figures represent another outstanding effort from everyone given the continuing pressure on the service."