ALMOST two-thirds of people who arrived at accident and emergency at Barnsley Hospital last month were seen within four hours, new figures show.
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 relaxed its aims and sought for 78 per cent of patients to be seen within this timeframe by March 2025.
Recent NHS England figures show there were 8,643 visits to A and E at Barnsley Hospital in September - of them, 5,544 were seen within four hours - accounting for 64 per cent of arrivals.
A total of 457 patients waited longer than four hours.
Siva Anandaciva, chief analyst at health think-tank the King’s Fund, said the NHS is approaching winter in ‘bad shape’ as financial pressures are rising, industrial action continues and performance targets are missed.
He added: “These statistics show it has been three years since A and E performance was above the current temporary target of 78 per cent of people waiting under four hours and nearly a decade since the official target of 95 per cent of people being seen in four hours was met.
“The government has made its diagnosis that the NHS is broken and now they must fix it.”
He said the upcoming budget will reveal how far the government is willing to go to support health and care services ahead of next year’s multi-year spending review.
“To govern is to choose and ministers have some tough choices about how they will balance their significant ambitions to improve health services with the reality of tight public finances.”
The NHS said accident and emergency departments experienced the busiest-ever September and followed the busiest summer on record.
The overall number of attendances to A and E in Barnsley in September was a rise of one per cent on the 8,536 visits recorded during August, but in line with the number seen in September 2023.
Professor Sir Stephen Powis, NHS national medical director, added: “These latest figures show the pressure we saw over the summer is not letting up, with too many patients waiting too long for treatment, following a record September for A and E attendances and more attendances so far this year than before the pandemic.
“It is likely to be another incredibly busy winter with extra demand from Covid, flu and the cold.”
