Long Waits For NHS Patients in East Sussex
The proportion of patients having to wait more than four hours in A&E departments in both the Conquest Hospital in Hastings and Eastbourne District General Hospital before being treated has fallen slightly over the past year – from 35% to 32%. That’s according to a statistical survey compiled by the BBC which it released publicly earlier this month. The figures are combined for the two hospitals as they are administered in tandem within the East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust. The national average is 30%.
Over the same period, the proportion of patients within the East Sussex area waiting more than 18 weeks for routine treatments has risen from 45% to 48%, as against a national average of 42%.
An East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust spokesperson said last week:
“In common with the NHS across the country, and following the Christmas period and recent industrial action by junior doctors, we are continuing to see high levels of demand for our services, including high numbers of people needing care in our emergency departments and admission into our busy hospitals. Capacity issues in social care mean that it can be difficult for us to discharge patients who are medically ready to go home and free up hospital beds for patients who are waiting to be admitted onto a ward.
“Despite these pressures, our staff and our partners are continuing to work hard to improve waiting times in our emergency departments (including ambulance handover times) and improve our discharges home from hospital”.
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