Half of A&E patients wait longer than four hours at University Hospitals of Bristol and Weston

Half of patients seeking A&E care at the University Hospitals of Bristol and Weston 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 University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust fell well behind that target in November, when just 51% of the 15,046 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 49% of patients attending major A&E at the University Hospitals of Bristol and Weston waited longer than four hours to be seen last month, compared to 45% in October, and 40% in November 2021.

Including the 2,137 attendances at other accident and emergency departments, such as minor A&Es and those with single specialties, 56% of A&E patients were seen by the trust within the target time in November.

At University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust:

In November:

2,006 patients waited longer than four hours for treatment following a decision to admit – 12% of patients

Of those, 862 were delayed by more than 12 hours

Separate NHS Digital data reveals that in October:

The median time to treatment was 71 minutes. The median average is used to ensure figures are not skewed by particularly long or short waiting times

Around 10% of patients left before being treated