Demand for emergency care soars by 25 per cent at Wigan's casualty departments

New data from NHS England shows demand for emergency care soared in March at Wigan Infirmary’s A&E unit and Leigh Walk-In Centre.

It coincided with more people being admitted to hospital with coronavirus and staff working to treat patients whose care was delayed earlier in the pandemic, placing the NHS in high demand.

A total of 14,165 people sought emergency care at Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (WWL) last month – 9,113 in the A&E department and 5,052 at the walk-in centre.

That was a massive 25 per cent increase on the 11,328 patients seen across the trust in February and the highest attendance since July.

WWL bosses have urged people to use the health service “appropriately” and consult NHS 111 first.

The large number of patients meant that many faced long waits to be seen by medics, as they prioritise the most poorly.

Across the trust 70.1 per cent of people were seen within the target time of four hours, up from 69.4 in February.

But for A&E alone, only 53.8 per cent were seen in that time, down from 54.0 per cent the month before.

The walk-in centre managed to see 99.3 per cent of people within four hours, a fall from 99.5 per cent in February.

There were 2,799 emergency admissions across the trust – up 16.9 per cent from 2,393 in February – with most of those coming via A&E.

However, once the decision to admit was made, 1,140 patients had to wait for more than four hours for a bed to become available and 125 waited for over 12 hours.

Across England, a record 22,506 people had to wait more than 12 hours in emergency departments in March from a decision to admit to actually being admitted: up from 16,404 in February and the highest for any month in records going back to August 2010.

Mary Fleming, Deputy Chief Executive, WWL, said: “Our staff are working incredibly hard to provide care and treatment to patients as quickly as possible, particularly those with life-threatening conditions and I would like to thank them for their continued support.

“We would urge people across the Wigan borough to continue to use our NHS services appropriately, contacting NHS 111 first to ensure you are directed to the most appropriate service for your needs and only coming to A&E with genuine emergencies.”

Just 71.6 per cent of patients in England were seen within four hours at A&Es last month, the lowest percentage in records going back to November 2010.

The operational standard is at least 95 per cent of patients attending A&E should be admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours, but this has not been met nationally since 2015.

NHS England said emergency departments were under significant pressure, with 2.17 million people attending A&E in March, a rise of nearly 20 per cent month-to-month and the highest March ever.

The latest data also shows the number of people in England waiting to start routine hospital treatment rose to a new record of 6.2 million at the end of February.

This is up from 6.1 in January and is the highest number since records began in August 2007.