Hospitals in Northumbria have the shortest A&E waiting times in England, a new analysis of data suggests. Numbers crunched by the BBC indicate that fewer than 10% of patients at Northumbria Healthcare hospitals faced waits in excess of four hours.
A total of 107 NHS trusts provided BBC News with data from December and January. The research is based on information from the trusts submitting data on four-hour waits - 14 services do not because they are testing out new ways of measuring performance for the Government.
Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust's hospitals, which include North Tyneside General Hospital, have had ambulances queuing outside their A&E departments. However, once patients are inside, patients have been treated and admitted much faster than in other hospitals across the country.
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One of the keys to Northumbria's success is that it's an integrated trust that also operates community services. This has resulted in improved care plans for patients who can be discharged faster because the trust is responsible for their care once they leave.
The joined-up system has also led to the establishment of a site dedicated to emergency care where senior A&E medics are available around the clock to make fast decisions about incoming patients.
Increasing integration between community and hospital services is a key plank of the Government and NHS England's plan to improve performance. Hospitals have received extra funds this winter enabling them to discharge patients, recruit more call handlers and open extra beds and a two-year plan to improve A&E performance has recently been published.
Louise Ansari, national director of Healthwatch England, agreed there had been signs of progress in recent weeks. But she added that there is "still a long way to go" and said the government and NHS England needed to go further and be more ambitious to help hospitals get back to seeing 95% of patients within four hours.
An NHS England spokeswoman said: "There is no doubt that hospitals have experienced significant demand for emergency care this winter." But she said performance had begun to improve, which NHS bosses would now look to build on.
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