Number of Northampton hospital A&E patients waiting over 12 hours to be admitted TRIPLES

The number of patients waiting in A&E at Northampton General Hospital (NGH) for over 12 hours to be admitted has risen threefold in a year.

Analysis of NHS England data by NationalWorld showed that one in seven patients admitted to hospital through A&E in December endured waits of over 12 hours for a bed once medics decided they needed to be admitted.

Labour shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting MP, said: “The NHS is in the biggest crisis in its history. The terrifying truth is that patients in an emergency can no longer be sure the NHS will be there for them.

“Heart attack and stroke victims are routinely waiting over three hours for an ambulance, when every second counts. 24 hours in A&E is not just a TV programme, it is the grim reality for too many patients. Too many lives are being lost as a result.

“After 13 years of Conservative mismanagement of the NHS, expecting them to fix this crisis is like asking the arsonist to put out the fire they started - it is not going to happen.”

The President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM), Dr Adrian Boyle, warned that England’s NHS has “no more time for inaction and unfulfilled promises.”

Nearly 700 patients endured trolley waits of over 12 hours at NGH in December

Out of 1,936 total emergency admissions at NGH in December, 660 of those (34.1 per cent) waited for more than 12 hours to be admitted. They could have been left languishing on trolleys or chairs in corridors while waiting for a bed or operating theatre to become free.

Despite the fact that there were more emergency admissions at NGH in December 2021 - a total of 1,977 - the number of patients who waited over 12 hours to be admitted was 207 (10.5 per cent). This shows that the number of patients waiting for over half a day to be admitted at NGH has more than tripled in the last year.

The figures include all those admitted after attending A&E, whether of their own accord or by ambulance. Not everybody who attends A&E needs to be admitted.

How does this compare to the rest of England?

Analysis by NationalWorld reveals that, while the proportion of patients facing extreme waits has spiralled across the country, the increase in the North, Midlands and London NHS regions has been even more pronounced than in the South East and South West.

At the East Cheshire NHS Trust, which runs the Macclesfield General Hospital, 60 per cent of its 1,005 patients were left facing trolley waits of over 12 hours, over four times higher than the national rate.

At four other trusts – all in London or the North West – more than 40 per cent of patients waited over half a day, and at four more the figure was over a third. Countess of Chester Hospital Trust (50 per cent) and North Middlesex University Hospital Trust (47 per cent) were the next worst affected.

Out of 152 hospitals, NGH ranks 35th in the number of patients waiting over 12 hours to be admitted from A&E.