Hospital A&E waiting times pass 30 hours in summer

More than 350 patients spent longer than 30 hours waiting in A&E at Lincoln County Hospital during the summer, figures show.

The longest wait at the hospital was almost 50 hours, United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust (ULHT) said.

The national target is at least 95% of A&E patients should be dealt with within four hours.

The chief executive of ULHT Andrew Morgan told BBC Radio Lincolnshire, 30 hours was in “extreme” cases.

“They [the hospitals] are really busy, we have more attendances than pre-Covid, we have got issues discharging patients from the hospitals so what that means is it backs up,” Mr Morgan said.

Between June and July 355 patients waited for at least 30 hours in A&E at Lincoln County Hospital.

The numbers waiting that long at Pilgrim Hospital in Boston were significantly lower.

However, one patient at Pilgrim waited for more than 50 hours in June before being admitted or discharged and the longest wait at Lincoln was 49 hours 30 minutes in July.

One cancer patient told the BBC in August how she waited for 31 hours at Lincoln County.

Tracey Summerson, from Scopwick near Metheringham, described the scene as “just crammed, you were like cattle in a market”.

Mr Morgan said he was sorry for both staff and patients having to deal with long waits, but added that hospitals had a higher capacity than ever before and patients were staying longer than before.

“Our occupancy level has been at the highest it has ever been, so in effect the hospital is full,” he said.

“When hospitals are full it is very difficult to admit new patients.”

Mr Morgan said staff were consulting with experts and learning lessons from other organisations.

“We’ve opened more capacity, we’ve increased our staffing,” he added.

“Hospitals are about flow. Ultimately you can’t admit them from the front door if you can’t discharge them from the back door and our problem is getting that flow right.”

Mr Morgan said the trust worked closely with partners in the rest of the system to try and improve their ability to discharge patients to home care or care homes and to encourage people to only come to A&E when they needed urgent care.