Airedale Hospital apologises to people facing long A&E waits

Airedale NHS Hospital Trust fell significantly short of an NHS recovery target for patients waiting to be seen at A&E within four hours, while Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust hit the target and is in the top cohort of performers in January.

The A&E at Bradford Royal Infirmary. (Image: Newsquest)

Half of people who arrived at accident and emergency at Airedale Hospital in Steeton were seen within four hours last month, new figures by NHS England revealed.

The NHS standard is for 95 per cent of patients to be seen within four hours. However, the Government announced a two-year plan to stabilise NHS services earlier this year and set a recovery target of 76 per cent of patients being seen within four hours by March 2024.

NHS England figures show there were 6,378 visits to A&E at Airedale in January. Of them, 3,236 were seen within four hours – accounting for 51 per cent of arrivals.

It means the trust fell significantly short of the 76 per cent recovery target and the 95 per cent NHS standard.

At Airedale, 747 patients waited longer than four hours, including 220 who were delayed by more than 12 hours.

Leanne Cooper, Chief Operating Officer at Airedale NHS Foundation Trust, said: "This is not where we would like to be, and we apologise to all our patients who have had long waits in our emergency department.

“Our urgent care performance is challenged because of a number of factors, including lack of ward capacity due to our RAAC decant programme, our high frail elderly population, significant financial challenge in our system affecting our ability to discharge promptly, staffing challenges and sustained increase in demand.

“We will continue to work closely with our system partners on tackling the wider challenges.

“Our emergency department continues to be extremely busy through this winter period and we are still seeing high levels of attendance.

“Members of the public can help by continuing to choose NHS services wisely. If you need urgent medical help but it’s not an emergency, please use 111 online or phone 111 and only attend A&E if it is a limb or life-threatening emergency.”

Meanwhile, more than four in five people who arrived at A&E at Bradford were seen within four hours last month.

NHS England figures show there were 12,798 visits to A&E at Bradford in January. Of them, 10,492 were seen within four hours – accounting for 82 per cent of arrivals and beating the recovery target by six per cent.

At Bradford Teaching Hospitals, 689 patients waited longer than four hours, including 31 who were delayed by more than 12 hours.

A spokesperson for Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “Our hospitals continue to be extremely busy, especially during this winter period when flu, Covid and common childhood illnesses are prevalent, and we are seeing very high numbers of patients in our A&E department.

“However, despite the national challenges against delivery of the four-hour standard, the Trust remains within the top cohort of performers against this overall standard, and we are performing above the NHS recovery target. “Improvements over the last eight months are down to changes we have made for those patients who are seen, treated and discharged direct from A&E or from our co-located urgent care centre or same day emergency care unit.

“But we have seen several challenges this winter for patients who require an admission to a hospital bed, and we are working with our system partners in both health and social care to meet these challenges together.

“We are committed to delivering safe care and our colleagues are working very hard to assess A&E patients in a timely manner according to the urgency of their clinical needs.”

Across England, 70 per cent of patients were seen within four hours – up slightly from 69 per cent the month before.

About 2.2 million people attended A&E departments across England last month – a record high for January.

The overall number of attendances to A&E at Bradford in January was a rise of three percent on the 12,482 visits recorded in December, and 17 per cent more than the 10,980 patients seen in January 2022.

At Airedale in January there was a rise of three per cent on the 6,191 visits in December, and 16 per cent more than the 5,521 patients seen in January 2022.