Patients to benefit from faster urgent and emergency care as Wigan's hospitals receive £2m boost

Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (WWL) has been awarded the cash to build on work it has already done to help patients receive timely urgent and emergency care, reduce waits and boost capacity.

It is national recognition of the improvements made in four-hour A&E performance and reductions in 12-hour waits.

The funding comes through the NHS England Urgent and Emergency Care Capital Incentive Scheme and can be used this financial year and next.

It will go towards practical changes to cut delays, ease pressure in hospitals and improve the experience of people who need care quickly.

Sarah Brennan, WWL’s chief operating officer, said: “We’re delighted to receive this investment, which will help us reduce delays, improve patient flow through our hospitals and ensure those in need of urgent and emergency care are treated quickly and safely in the right place, at the right time.

"It will help to strengthen the incredible progress already being made through our Better Lives programme – helping to bridge the gap between hospital and home – and transform care while improving the experience of residents across the Wigan borough.”

The Better Lives programme is a joint initiative with Wigan Council and NHS Greater Manchester, which aims to make a rapid, meaningful and sustained improvement to the lives of residents, patients and health and care staff in Wigan.

It moves away from a traditional approach of increasing hospital inpatient beds to supporting residents to remain in their own homes for longer.

It is looking at admission avoidance, acute patient flow and length of stay, defining and creating a community model to support care in the right settings, increasing independence and the creation of one single, data-driven dashboard for system visibility across the three organisations.

It comes as new NHS England statistics are published showing that fewer A&E patients being admitted to WWL are facing long waits for a bed.

Once healthcare staff decide a patient needs to be admitted, there can sometimes be a delay in finding a bed that is available and in a suitable place for them.

The Better Lives programme has looked at helping patients who are medically ready to be discharged but need support to go home, with WWL working with partner organisations to assist them.

As well as allowing the patient to go home to recuperate, this frees up beds within the hospitals for other patients who need them.

The statistics show that in May 535 patients had to wait more than four hours from the decision to admit to admission, down from 849 in April and 1,560 in May 2025.

The number of patients waiting for more than 12 hours was 179, decreasing from 321 the month before and 367 in May last year.

That was despite an increase in emergency admissions at the trust, rising to 3,063 last month, from 2,670 in April and 2,909 last May.

WWL’s performance bucked the national trend, as the number of people waiting more than 12 hours for a bed across England stood at 50,212 in May, up from 47,750 in April, while the number waiting at least four hours was 128,590 last month, up from 122,616 in April.

The data also reveals how many people faced long waits to be seen when they first arrived at WWL’s casualty units.

Across the trust – which includes urgent treatment centres as well as the A&E department at Wigan Infirmary – 75.5 per cent of patients were seen on time, down slightly from 76.5 per cent last month but up from 72.2 per cent last May.

For A&E alone, it stood at 54.1 per cent in May, rising from 54.0 per cent in April and 52.7 per cent last May.

There were 12,636 attendances across the trust last month, which was down slightly from 12,691 in April and 12,795 in May last year.

Year on year there was a drop in the number of people going to Wigan’s A&E unit and a rise in those going to urgent treatment centres, as efforts are made to stream patients to make sure they are seen in the right place.

Some 75.7 per cent of patients in England were seen within four hours in A&Es in May, down from 76.9 per cent in April.

NHS England said A&Es experienced their busiest month on record in May and the bank holiday heatwave piled pressure on NHS services.

Ms Brennan said: “We are pleased to see a continued reduction in the number of patients facing long waits for a bed after a decision to admit has been made.

“This progress reflects the sustained work of our teams and partners to improve patient flow and ensure people receive the right care in the right place. A key factor has been the support now available for patients who are medically ready to leave hospital. Through our Better Lives programme, we are working closely with health and care partners to enable people to return to the place they call home, safely, and with the right support in place.”

She continued: “As always, we are extremely grateful to our staff for their continued hard work and to our communities for their support.

"We also remind the public to use A&E only for life, limb or sight-threatening conditions. For less urgent needs, NHS 111, pharmacies, urgent treatment centres and GP services remain the best options.”