Third of patients wait more than four hours at A&E in Lancaster and Barrow

NHS guidance states 95% of patients attending accident and emergency departments should be admitted to hospital, transferred elsewhere or discharged within four hours.

But University Hospitals Of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust (UHMBT) fell well behind that target at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary and Furness General Hospital in November.

Just 68% of the 8,440 attendances at the A&E departments were dealt with within four hours, according to figures from NHS England.

Type 1 departments are those which provide major emergency services – with full resuscitation equipment and 24-hour consultant-led care – and account for the majority of attendances nationally.

It means 32% of patients attending major A&E at the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay waited longer than four hours to be seen last month, compared to 38% in October, and 30% in November 2021.

Including the 2,810 attendances at other accident and emergency departments, such as minor A&Es and those with single specialties, 75% of A&E patients were seen by the trust within the target time in November.

The 95% standard has not been met across the NHS in England since July 2015 – and last month, just 69% of A&E attendances were admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours, compared to 74% in November 2021 and 84% in November 2020.

Performance was worse in type 1 departments, where just 54% of patients were seen within the target time in November, down from 62% during the same month last year, and 77% two years earlier.