NHS Winter 2013-14: Weekly A&E tracker
- Published
Winter brings extra pressures for the NHS, particularly in Accident and Emergency departments, as cold weather, flu and other winter bugs lead to falls, chest infections or heart problems.
We have been tracking the data so you can find out how your nearest major A&E in England is coping week by week.
Are they meeting the target of seeing 95% of patients in four hours? How many beds are closed? The same figures are not provided by Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, but we aim to include detail about those nations when we can.
This week's figures for England:
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93.7%
patients seen in 4 hours at major A&E hospitals
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95.8%
patients seen in 4 hours at all A&E units
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3,828
Ambulances queuing
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This week at
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97.2%
Patients seen in 4 hours
The government target is that 95% of patients arriving at a major Accident and Emergency should be seen within four hours.major A&E trusts missing 95% target major A&E trusts meeting 95% target -
Attendance at A&E
The number of people who visit the unit during the week1,889
Down by three -
Emergency admissions
These are when patients need to be admitted into the hospital for further treatment. The majority come via A&E, but some also arrive after GP referrals or after outpatient appointments. The figure shown only includes those patients who have been admitted by A&E.384
Down by threeYour hospitalEngland average -
People who have to wait more than 4 hours to be admitted
The number of people who have waited longer than the target of four-hours to be seen or admitted into hospital.0Down by two372Up by twoPeople who waited more than 4 hours to be admitted, weeks compared
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Trolley wait between 4 and 12 hours
This is an indication of a long wait for an emergency admission. It measures the time it takes after A&E staff have decided a patient needs to be admitted to hospital to the point at which they are given a bed.0372Trolley wait between 4 and 12 hours, weeks compared
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Ambulances queuing outside A&E
Ambulances can only leave A&E when they have formally transferred a patient into the care of hospital staff. The NHS is meant to do this within 15 minutes of an ambulance arrival. A queuing ambulance is classed as one that has waited at least 30 minutes.030Ambulances queuing outside A&E weeks compared
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Planned operations cancelled
Pressure on A&E can affect other parts of the hospital. This measures the number of non-emergency operations cancelled, which includes treatments such as hip and knee replacements.04Planned operations cancelled, weeks compared
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Beds blocked
Some patients, particularly the frail elderly, can only be discharged when the hospital is satisfied there is the right care in the community, either from social care or the NHS, for them to be properly cared for. This is an indication of how many days have been lost due to patients being kept in hospital when they are ready for discharge because of insufficient services available out of hospital. The figures are calculated by adding together the number of beds blocked each day to create a weekly total.0100Beds blocked, weeks compared
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Bed days lost to norovirus
Figure is calculated by adding the number of beds unavailable each day due to diarrhoea and vomiting or norovirus-like symptoms over the week.020Beds closed due to norovirus, weeks compared
Analysis
By Nick Triggle, health correspondent Attendances once again climbed, topping 450,000 for the first time this year. That is about 70,000 higher than it was in the early weeks of January 36,000 higher than it was for the corresponding week last year. But the NHS continues to cope well with the growing pressures. Overall, it is still meeting the waiting time target. Some 95.8% of patients were seen in four hours over the last week, although that is down slightly on the week before. In terms, of the major units 93.7% of patients were seen in that timeframe. It means if the NHS sees a similar level of performance next week the health service will have met its overall four-hour target for the fourth quarter of 2013-14 � the January to March period. It was during these months last year that the target was missed.
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Notes
Saint Bartholomew's Hospital is missing data for 8 January. This means that figures for the following categories may be revised upwards when all the data is available; ambulances queuing, cancelled operations, beds blocked and bed days lost due to norovirus.
During the holiday period, weeks seven and eight of the tracker, figures were compiled slightly differently by NHS England. This means that week seven is slightly longer than week eight as the data for the 24-26 December was recorded as a single entry, meaning week seven gained a day, and week eight lost a day for the following categories of information; ambulances queuing, cancelled operations, beds blocked and bed days lost due to norovirus.
In week six of the tracker, Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust was unable to provide the weekly figures for some of the data, so we have used an average from the last five weeks for: Patients seen in 4 hours, Attendance at A&E, Emergency admissions, People who waited more than 4 hours to be admitted and Trolley wait between 4 and 12 hours. We will update with the latest figures when they are available.
Chase Farm Hospital, part of the Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals NHS Trust, no longer has an Accident and Emergency department, external. The data for the trust now only relates to Barnet Hospital.
The Princess Royal University Hospital (PRUH), Bromley, is now part of the King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. We will be adding the PRUH to the search, but to see data for the trust in the meantime please enter the postcode: SE5 9RS.
Produced by Dominic Bailey, Ransome Mpini, Charlotte Thornton, John Walton, Chris Ashton
- Published28 March 2014
- Published21 November 2013
