Record number of people waiting at least four hours in A&E, NHS England data shows
A record number of people were left waiting at least four hours from the decision to admit to admission in A&E, NHS England figures show.
The number waiting reached a peak of 150,922 in October, up from 131,861 the previous month.
More than 30% of people had to wait over four hours to be seen in A&E in October, including 45% of people attending Major A&Es (excluding minor injuries units and specialist centres).
The operational standard is that at least 95% of patients attending A&E should be admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours, but this has not been met nationally since 2015.
The number of people waiting more than 12 hours in A&E departments in England from a decision to admit to actually being admitted has also risen to a new record high.
New NHS England data shows that 43,792 people waited longer than 12 hours in October, up 34% from 32,776 in September and the highest number in records going back to August 2010.
It comes as the number of people in England waiting to start routine hospital treatment has risen to a new record high.
A total of 7.1 million people were waiting to start treatment at the end of September, NHS England said.
This is up from 7.0 million in August and is the highest number since records began in August 2007.
Meanwhile, 401,537 people have been waiting longer than a year to start hospital treatment, up from 387,257 at the end of August and equivalent to around one in 18 people on the entire waiting list.
Very long waits of more than two years have fallen slightly, while the number of people waiting 18 months for treatment has dropped by almost 60% in one year, NHS England said.
The rate cancer patients in England saw a specialist within two weeks of seeing their GP has also slumped to an all time low.
Data shows 251,977 urgent cancer referrals were made by GPs in September, but only 72.6% were seen within the two week timeframe.
It also showed that nearly 6,000 cancer referral patients waited more than two months to be seen by a specialist.
Ambulance waiting times were also a long way outside their targets, with the average response time to people with life-threatening injuries outside London clocking in at nine minutes 56 seconds, almost three minutes over the target time of seven minutes.
Figures also revealed the number of people in England waiting longer than six weeks for a key diagnostic test has risen to the highest level in two years.
Some 463,930 patients – 29.8% of the total – had been waiting longer than six weeks for one of 15 standard tests in September, including MRI scans, non-obstetric ultrasound or gastroscopies.
This is up from 461,400 the previous month and the highest number since August 2020 when 472,517 patients had been waiting longer than six weeks.
NHS medical director Professor Sir Stephen Powis said: “There is no doubt October has been a challenging month for staff, who are now facing a tripledemic of Covid, flu and record pressure on emergency services with more people attending A&E or requiring the most urgent ambulance callout than any other October.
“Pressure on emergency services remains high as a result of more than 13,000 beds taken up each day by people who no longer need to be in hospital.
“But staff have kept their foot on the accelerator to get the backlog down, with 18-month waiters down by three-fifths on last year.
“We have always said the overall waiting list would rise as more patients come forward, and, with pressures on staff set to increase over the winter months, the NHS has a plan – including a new falls service, 24/7 war rooms, and extra beds and call handlers.”
