Only a third of patients visiting England’s worst-performing A&E are being treated within four hours.
And just six hospital trusts in the entire country hit the target in February, dubbed the ‘toughest month ever for the NHS’.
On average, English hospitals only managed to see 84.2 per cent of A&E patients within the four-hour time limit – the lowest figure ever.
Health leaders have today slammed the figures, analysed by MailOnline, as being ‘dire’ and ‘a catastrophe’.
They come amid controversial plans announced by the NHS which could see the four-hour target scrapped completely because hospitals keep failing to meet it.
The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust in Harlow, Essex, had the worst performing A&E in February, managing to treat, admit or discharge just 64 per cent of its patients in four hours
The Princess Alexandra Hospital Trust in Harlow, Essex, cared for just 64 per cent of its A&E patients within the NHS time target last month.
And all but six of the 135 hospital trusts in England fell short of the health service target of treating or discharging 95 per cent of patient in four hours.
The British Medical Association this month said ‘it’s difficult to imagine the NHS in a much worse state’.
NHS Providers, a trade association for hospital trusts, recently posted a comment on its website saying February was the ‘toughest month to date’ for the health service.
In the final week of January overloaded hospital beds were the busiest they had been all winter, with 95 per cent of overnight beds filled.
‘These A&E figures show the problem isn’t bad management or lazy doctors,’ the vice-president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, Chris Moulton, told MailOnline.
‘It’s an endemic problem. It’s a catastrophe.
‘Four hours is a reasonable time for patients to be seen. It’s certainly reasonable for those who are very ill and, if you’re not very ill, you don’t want to be in A&E.
‘The population keeps getting bigger and there are something like 200 more people over the age of 85 every day. This is absolutely going to get worse.’
Recently announced plans could see the four-hour target scrapped in favour of new ways of measuring how long it takes for people to be seen.
These will be trialled in the next few months and potentially rolled out later in the year, according to NHS England.
Mr Moulton added: ‘If you’re in the Olympics and you can’t do the high jump you don’t ask to lower the bar. Hospitals need more capacity to meet the target.
NHS A&E departments try to see 95 per cent of their patients within four hours but the health service as a whole hasn’t hit the benchmark for an entire year since 2014
‘Changing the target isn’t going to make waits any shorter and it won’t improve anything for patients or staff.
‘It will camouflage the very long waits and take the heat off the NHS for a while by making it harder to compare with previous years.’
A&E departments in February managed to process six per cent fewer patients than they did last year, which was considered the height of the NHS’s ‘worst ever winter’.
Ten of them fell to below the 75 per cent mark, meaning a quarter of their patients were waiting more than four hours to be seen.
Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, said: ‘It really is dire that so many hospitals are failing the four hour A&E target and patients are left to endure longer waits in pain and distress.
‘The simple truth is year after year of Tory underfunding and cutbacks have pushed A&E departments to the brink.’
The Princess Alexandra Hospital Trust was comfortably the worst, followed by Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, which treated 68.3 per cent in time.
Hospital trusts in Shrewsbury and Telford, Stockport, Salford, West Hertfordshire, Worcestershire, Bradford, Lincolnshire and Plymouth all left more than a quarter of their patients waiting for more than four hours.
The Princess Alexandra Hospital Trust serves a population of around 350,000 people in Harlow and the surrounding area.
It was rated Requires Improvement – the second lowest out of four possible scores – by the Care Quality Commission in its latest report in March last year.
The report warned the hospital, built in the 1960s, is showing ‘very significant signs of age’ and needs £50million worth of work doing to it.
In 2016 it paid a £1.8million fine for making patients wait more than a year for treatment – the NHS says no patients should have to wait more than 52 weeks.
Other February statistics slammed as ‘shameful’ by the Shadow Health Secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, showed waits for cancer treatment are longer than ever, with record numbers of people waiting more than a month to start therapy.
And the NHS missed its target to treat people within two months of a doctor’s referral for the 37th month in a row.
The waiting list for all types of treatment rose to 4.16million people – second only to 4.18m in October last year.
More than 220,000 of those people had been waiting for six months or more, and 36,000 of them for at least nine months.
An NHS England spokesperson said: ‘NHS staff across the country have been working incredibly hard throughout winter to provide the best care for patients and despite significant increases in demand, almost a quarter of a million more people were seen and treated within four hours in A&E this winter compared to last year.’
Rachel Power, chief executive of the Patients Association, told MailOnline: ‘These figures are a huge concern, particularly when you consider the relatively mild winter we have experienced this year.
‘It’s a sad indictment of the state that our health service has been allowed to fall into that thousands of patients needing urgent medical help face the awful prospect of being left stranded in cramped corridors or on hospital trollies, waiting for a hospital bed to become available.
‘These figures are also important considering the NHS’s plans to revise targets for A&E patients to be treated within four hours.’
Dr Simon Walsh, the British Medical Association’s emergency medicine lead, said: ‘These figures show the worrying scale of pressures on emergency departments across the country as inability to meet the four-hour target has now become the norm and not the exception.
‘Despite a relatively mild winter and lower cases of influenza, many trusts are regularly reporting performance figures significantly below the 95 per cent target.
‘A major factor behind this relentless decline in performance is the excessive occupancy that many hospitals are running at; often exceeding levels of capacity at which it is accepted that performance will inevitably decline and even reaching levels where safe patient care is put at risk.
‘This is both concerning for patients who are stuck in overcrowded emergency departments waiting for beds to be available on the wards and concerning for the staff who are working around the clock in incredibly challenging circumstances.’
John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, told MailOnline: ‘It’s deeply concerning that taxpayers and patients are experiencing such long waiting times at many hospitals and GP centres across the country.
‘Too often taxpayers’ money is thrown at the NHS without any thought given to the long-term solutions.’
NHS trust name | Total A&E attendances | Percentage in 4 hours or less (all) |
---|---|---|
The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust | 9,306 | 64.00% |
Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust | 21,360 | 68.30% |
Shrewsbury And Telford Hospital NHS Trust | 12,842 | 71.40% |
Stockport NHS Foundation Trust | 7,679 | 72.00% |
Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust | 8,361 | 72.00% |
West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust | 12,117 | 72.80% |
Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust | 14,557 | 73.50% |
Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | 10,746 | 73.80% |
United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust | 18,640 | 74.00% |
Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust | 11,833 | 74.50% |
Wye Valley NHS Trust | 4,661 | 75.30% |
Norfolk And Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | 15,847 | 76.00% |
Isle Of Wight NHS Trust | 4,486 | 76.30% |
Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust | 17,255 | 76.50% |
The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust | 7,905 | 76.70% |
University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust | 50,374 | 77.30% |
The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King’s Lynn, NHS Foundation Trust | 5,311 | 77.30% |
East Cheshire NHS Trust | 3,799 | 77.40% |
Wrightington, Wigan And Leigh NHS Foundation Trust | 10,746 | 77.60% |
North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust | 16,463 | 78.00% |
East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust | 14,493 | 78.30% |
North Bristol NHS Trust | 9,891 | 78.50% |
Brighton And Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust | 16,602 | 78.50% |
Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust | 9,682 | 78.60% |
Barking, Havering And Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust | 31,128 | 78.80% |
Bolton NHS Foundation Trust | 9,535 | 78.80% |
Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust | 8,306 | 79.00% |
Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | 11,965 | 79.00% |
Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust | 10,601 | 79.10% |
Medway NHS Foundation Trust | 12,752 | 79.10% |
University Hospitals Coventry And Warwickshire NHS Trust | 19,539 | 79.10% |
King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | 33,806 | 79.40% |
Warrington And Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | 10,383 | 79.40% |
Northern Lincolnshire And Goole NHS Foundation Trust | 12,349 | 79.60% |
University Hospitals Of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust | 8,949 | 79.80% |
Torbay And South Devon NHS Foundation Trust | 8,168 | 79.80% |
The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust | 13,532 | 80.10% |
James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | 6,046 | 80.10% |
George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust | 6,948 | 80.30% |
University Hospitals Of North Midlands NHS Trust | 20,909 | 80.30% |
Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | 8,278 | 80.50% |
East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust | 23,346 | 80.50% |
Countess Of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | 5,892 | 81.00% |
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | 13,257 | 81.10% |
Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | 7,147 | 81.10% |
Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust | 4,257 | 81.40% |
The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | 13,259 | 81.40% |
Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | 9,656 | 81.80% |
York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | 15,750 | 81.80% |
St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | 14,296 | 82.20% |
Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust | 19,797 | 82.40% |
Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust | 32,661 | 82.40% |
Barts Health NHS Trust | 40,565 | 82.50% |
Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust | 36,380 | 82.50% |
University Hospitals Of Leicester NHS Trust | 28,289 | 82.60% |
University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trustÿ | 28,978 | 82.60% |
Lewisham And Greenwich NHS Trust | 26,389 | 82.60% |
East And North Hertfordshire NHS Trust | 14,427 | 82.70% |
Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | 14,718 | 83.20% |
University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust | 15,923 | 83.30% |
Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust | 23,009 | 83.70% |
Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | 15,842 | 83.80% |
Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust | 11,780 | 84.00% |
England average | 1,953,782 | 84.20% |
Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | 6,646 | 84.30% |
Ashford And St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | 15,253 | 84.50% |
Hull And East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust | 18,206 | 84.50% |
Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | 16,780 | 84.70% |
St Helens And Knowsley Hospital Services NHS Trust | 18,945 | 84.70% |
Sandwell And West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust | 19,708 | 84.70% |
North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust | 9,034 | 84.80% |
Aintree University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | 13,695 | 84.90% |
Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | 11,946 | 85.00% |
Dartford And Gravesham NHS Trust | 10,775 | 85.00% |
Royal Liverpool And Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust | 18,543 | 85.20% |
North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust | 17,880 | 85.40% |
County Durham And Darlington NHS Foundation Trust | 16,944 | 85.70% |
University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust | 14,998 | 85.80% |
Guy’s And St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust | 17,119 | 86.10% |
Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | 14,283 | 86.30% |
Croydon Health Services NHS Trust | 19,404 | 86.40% |
Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust | 25,565 | 86.50% |
Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust | 26,435 | 86.50% |
Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | 18,264 | 86.60% |
University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | 16,419 | 86.80% |
Birmingham Women’s And Children’s NHS Foundation Trust | 6,754 | 86.90% |
Maidstone And Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust | 15,312 | 87.10% |
Taunton And Somerset NHS Foundation Trust | 9,436 | 87.30% |
City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust | 16,899 | 87.40% |
Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | 11,266 | 87.50% |
East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust | 13,318 | 87.60% |
Tameside And Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust | 11,282 | 87.70% |
Weston Area Health NHS Trust | 4,721 | 87.90% |
West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust | 5,741 | 88.00% |
Royal Surrey County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | 6,187 | 88.00% |
Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust | 12,472 | 88.10% |
Southport And Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust | 11,597 | 88.20% |
Epsom And St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust | 14,041 | 88.30% |
The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust | 19,693 | 88.40% |
Bedford Hospital NHS Trust | 8,377 | 88.40% |
Airedale NHS Foundation Trust | 5,364 | 88.60% |
The Royal Bournemouth And Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | 7,836 | 88.70% |
Whittington Health NHS Trust | 12,587 | 88.70% |
Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust | 15,206 | 88.90% |
Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust | 5,389 | 89.40% |
London North West Healthcare NHS Trust | 35,750 | 89.50% |
Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | 17,175 | 90.20% |
Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | 12,547 | 90.30% |
Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | 10,268 | 90.40% |
Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | 14,671 | 90.40% |
South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust | 6,301 | 90.60% |
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust | 32,042 | 90.80% |
South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | 12,415 | 91.00% |
Doncaster And Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | 13,387 | 91.00% |
Basildon And Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | 12,962 | 91.00% |
East Suffolk and North Essex NHS FoundationÿTrustÿ | 23,470 | 91.30% |
Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | 7,162 | 91.40% |
Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust | 9,394 | 91.80% |
Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | 9,955 | 91.90% |
Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | 11,900 | 91.90% |
Calderdale And Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust | 15,499 | 92.20% |
Royal Devon And Exeter NHS Foundation Trust | 13,626 | 92.20% |
South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust | 5,484 | 92.40% |
Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust | 16,769 | 92.50% |
Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | 7,876 | 92.90% |
The Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | 19,035 | 92.90% |
Surrey And Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust | 16,503 | 93.20% |
Harrogate And District NHS Foundation Trust | 4,494 | 93.40% |
Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust | 17,124 | 93.60% |
Chelsea And Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | 30,663 | 93.70% |
Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust | 7,625 | 93.80% |
North Tees And Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust | 13,962 | 95.50% |
Yeovil District Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | 6,165 | 96.30% |
Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust | 4,911 | 96.80% |
Luton And Dunstable University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | 12,213 | 97.50% |
Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust | 1,067 | 97.70% |
Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | 7,279 | 98.80% |