Rise in visits to Shropshire A&Es - with 632 patients delayed by more than 12 hours

Figures from NHS England have shown 12,105 patients visited the Accident and Emergency department at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust in September.

This was a rise of one per cent on the 11,972 visits recorded during August, but was five per cent lower than the 12,765 patients seen in September of last year.

The majority of attendances last month were via major A&E departments – those with full resuscitation equipment and 24-hour consultant-led care – while 16 per cent were via minor injury units.

In September of this year, 1,712 patients waited longer than four hours for treatment following a decision to admit – and of those, 632 were delayed by more than 12 hours.

Separate data from NHS Digital has also revealed that the median time for treatment in August was 113.5 minutes – approximately one hour and 53 minutes.

The median average is used to ensure figures are not skewed by particularly long or short waiting times.

Around nine per cent of patients left before being treated.

Meanwhile, 2,662 patients visited minor injury units at Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust in September. The trust runs community hospitals and minor injury units in Bridgnorth, Ludlow, Whitchurch, Bishop's Castle and Oswestry.

That was a drop of 10 per cent on the 2,942 visits recorded during August, and six per cent lower than the 2,832 patients seen in September 2021.

All arrivals were seen within four hours, against an NHS target of 95 per cent.