Drop in visits to A&E at Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals last month

NHS England figures show 15,648 patients visited A&E at DBTH – which runs Worksop’s Bassetlaw Hospital as well as Doncaster Royal Infirmary – in September.

That was a drop of 3 per cent on the 16,114 visits recorded during August, and 10 per cent lower than the 17,350 patients seen in September 2021.

The figures show attendances were above the levels seen two years ago – in September 2020, there were 14,939 visits to A&E departments run by DBTH.

The majority of attendances last month were via major A&E departments – those with full resuscitation equipment and 24-hour consultant-led care – while 21 per cent were via minor injury units.

Across England, A&E departments received two million visits last month.

That was a rise of less than 1 per cent compared with August, but 6 per cent fewer than the 2.1 million seen during September 2021.

At DBTH in September:

69 per cent of arrivals were seen within four hours, against an NHS target of 95 per cent; 1,560 patients waited longer than four hours for treatment following a decision to admit – 10 per cent of patients; Of those, 261 were delayed by more than 12 hours.

Separate NHS Digital data reveals that in August the median time to treatment was 77 minutes – the median average is used to ensure figures are not skewed by particularly long or short waiting times.

About 6 per cent of patients left before being treated.