Under pressure A&E departments had the second-worst month on record in January – treating or discharging 85.3% of patients within the target four hours.
The NHS England figures showed a slight improvement than the previous month when 81% were seen within the target four hours – lower than the NHS aim to see 95% of people in that time.
Acute emergency departments saw the biggest pressure, with 77.1% of patients dealt with in four hours – the worst on record.
Under pressure A&E departments had the second-worst month on record in January – treating or discharging 85.3% of patients within the target four hours.
The NHS England figures showed a slight improvement than the previous month when 81% were seen within the target four hours – lower than the NHS aim to see 95% of people in that time.
Acute emergency departments saw the biggest pressure, with 77.1% of patients dealt with in four hours – the worst on record.
Just over 2m patients visited all A&E departments, including minor injury and single speciality clinics, in January.
The figures showed that over half of them – or 1.2m – went to major A& E departments.
Staff in acute emergency departments dealt with 970,138 within the four hour target. Overall 1.7m patients were seen within four hours of arriving at any kind of emergency department in January.
January also saw 1,043 patients spending more than 12 hours waiting to be admitted – more than twice the number in December.
NHS England said performance had improved overall last month, despite the worst outbreak of flu in seven years.
‘Hospitals managed better A&E performance this January than they did in December,’ NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens said.
‘People have really gone the extra mile this holiday period,’ he told today’s board meeting, but added that pressures were ‘very real indeed’.
