BARNSLEY Hospital staff working in A and E departments are in the middle of their busiest ever summer with almost 20,000 arrivals over the last two months, latest figures have revealed.
Recent NHS England figures show there were 9,190 visits to A and E in July.
Of them, 6,558 were seen within four hours - accounting for 71 per cent of arrivals.
The NHS standard is for 95 per cent of patients to be seen within four hours.
However, as part of a recovery plan, the health service has an objective for 78 per cent of patients to be seen within this time frame by March 2025.
The previous recovery target was for 76 per cent of patients to be seen within four hours by March this year, which was missed across England.
A total of 225 patients were waiting longer than four hours to be seen at the Gawber Road site.
Danielle Jefferies, senior analyst at think-tank The King’s Fund, said the figures are a stark reminder pressure in the NHS is not going away ‘as it grapples with ongoing industrial action, tight public finances, and a rise in the number of beds occupied by patients with Covid-19’.
She added: “This is worrying because the NHS should be working now to prepare for winter, but instead providers are using their time and money to tackle immediate pressures.
“The new government will need to be clear on how it will support the NHS and patients going into a difficult winter and will face difficult decisions on how to recover NHS performance.”
The overall number of attendances to A and E at Barnsley Hospital in July was in line with the number of visits recorded during June, and four per cent more than the 8,870 patients seen in July 2023.
Professor Sir Stephen Powis, NHS national medical director, said the past two months have been some of the busiest in the history of the organisation - and it has been made worse due to industrial action.
He added: “A and E staff are under significant pressure and the NHS is in the middle of what could be its busiest summer ever, with a total of 4.6 million attendances in the last two months alone and 2024 now having seen the three busiest months for A and E on record.
“While we have seen improvements in the number of patients seen and treated within four hours in A and E, slightly faster ambulance response times, and more than three quarters of cancer patients receiving an all clear or diagnosis in four weeks, it is clear that waits for patients across a range of services remain unacceptable and there is much more to do to deliver more timely care for those who need it.
“Nobody in the NHS wants to see patients experiencing long delays and we are committed to working with the government to create a ten-year plan for health that includes a clear plan to bring waits down.
“In the meantime, staff continue to work incredibly hard to deliver the best possible care for patients, and it is vital that people continue to come forward when they have health concerns.”
