Third of A&E patients wait longer than four hours at South Warwickshire University Trust

A third of patients seeking A&E care at the South Warwickshire University Trust waited longer than four hours to be dealt with last month, figures show.

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

But South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust fell well behind that target in November, when just 66% of the 7,678 attendances at type 1 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 34% of patients attending major A&E at the South Warwickshire University Trust waited longer than four hours to be seen last month, compared to 39% in October, and 34% in November 2021.

At South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust:

In November:

There were 36 booked appointments, down from 46 in October

348 patients waited longer than four hours for treatment following a decision to admit – 5% of patients

Separate NHS Digital data reveals that in October:

The median time to treatment was 80 minutes. The median average is used to ensure figures are not skewed by particularly long or short waiting times

Around 5% of patients left before being treated