NHS Winter Tracker

Posted 18/02/2014

The NHS has undertaken to keep track of statistics for Accident and Emergency (A&E) Departments on a weekly basis. They are looking at waiting times, both inside hospitals and in ambulance queues, cancelled operations and beds blocked and/or beds lost to Norovirus.

The Government’s aim is for 95% of patients to be seen within four hours of arriving at A&E. The good news for patients in East Anglia is that most of our larger regional hospitals are achieving this target with the most recently published figures showing 98.5% for West Suffolk Hospital, 97.2% for Ipswich Hospital, 96% for Norfolk & Norwich Hospital and 95.8% for Addenbrookes. The Queen Elisabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn falls slightly below the target at 94.4% but above the national average of 94.3%.

These regional hospitals are also showing much better than average statistics on beds lost to Norovirus, with only four beds showing as currently lost in this way, all at the Norfolk & Norwich Hospital. This is vastly better than the national average of 28.6 beds.

Anyone wishing to look at the current statistics for their nearest hospital can do so here.

Julie Crossley, a medical injury lawyer at Ashtons Legal comments: “These are interesting statistics and worth keeping an eye on as we go through the rest of the winter.”