Full story at The Guardian 11 January 2018
The percentage of A&E patients being treated within the politically important four-hour target has reached its lowest ever level, with hospitals managing to care for just 77.3% of patients within that time last month – far fewer than the 95% target covering all types of urgent and emergency care.
Fewer than four out of five patients were treated and then admitted, discharged or transferred by emergency departments based at hospitals in England during December, what the NHS calls type 1 A&E units.
That was the worst performance since records began – even worse than the previous low of 77.6% recorded in January 2017 and the 79.3% recorded in December 2016.
A record number of patients were also admitted to hospital as an emergency last month – 392,277 – in another illustration of the intense and growing pressure that the NHS is under.