More than 1,000 casualty patients face long waits for beds at Wigan's hospitals

It was the third consecutive month that so many people faced long delays and reflects the demand for beds across the hospitals, as busy staff work to deal with the backlog of patients caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

New data from NHS England shows 1,061 patients waited more than four hours for a bed in May – up from 1,011 in April – while 118 patients had to wait for more than 12 hours.

Nationally, the number of people waiting at least four hours from the decision to admit to admission stood at 122,768 in May, down from 131,905 the previous month, while 19,053 waited more than 12 hours.

A total of 14,114 people sought help at Wigan Infirmary’s A&E department and Leigh Walk-In Centre last month, with 2,793 emergency admissions made.

Across the trust 74.5 per cent of patients were admitted, transferred or discharged in four hours – up from 73.4 per cent in April and above the national figure of 73 per cent.

This broke down into 59.5 per cent of people being seen within the target time at A&E – compared to 58.2 per cent the month before – and 99.4 per cent at the walk-in centre, down by 0.3 per cent.

The aim is for 95 per cent of patients seeking emergency care to be seen within four hours, but this standard has not been met for some time.