Wait times for A&E patients at QEH are improving, latest figures show

Hospital officials have said they have been working hard to improve wait times, as the latest data showed fewer patients were experiencing long emergency admission delays.The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Lynn has reduced the percentage of patients waiting to be admitted to A&E for more than 12 hours in the last three months compared to the previous three-month period – which it says was helped by the upgrades to its Emergency Department.From July to September 2023, the hospital experienced the worst A&E queues in the East of England – with 22,336 attending A&E in that period.

After a decision to admit a patient was made, 12.29% (2,746) of them waited at least another four hours to be admitted, discharged or transferred, with 4.38% (979) waiting more than 12 hours.However, the hospital has been working hard to improve the figures and reduce delays for patients.The most recent data, which was recorded from October to December 2023, shows that, of the 21,848 patients attending A&E, 220 of them waited more than 12 hours from the decision to admit them to then being admitted – working out at 1%.

In that time period, a total of 1,005 (4.59%) waited more than four hours to be admitted.The numbers were also much improved compared to the same three-month period in 2022, when 9.6% of patients waited longer than 12 hours to be admitted.The most recent data also showed that the QEH’s waiting times were also the best of Norfolk’s hospitals and among the best in the East of England.Simon Illingworth, chief operating officer at the QEH, said the newly-opened and reconfigured Emergency Department had already made a significant difference to the figures.“Teams across the trust have been working hard to improve wait times and flow across all services – particularly our Emergency Department – to improve the experience for our patients,” he said.“We have been working hard to reduce the number of long waits, in particular focusing on those waiting longer than 12 hours from decision to admission.“In October we opened our newly reconfigured Emergency Department, an investment of £2.7 million, to improve ambulance handovers and give a better experience for patients.“The impact of this newly configured area, alongside the hard work of all our dedicated teams, is reflected in our figures for October through to December 2023 where only 1% of patients experienced a wait longer than 12 hours from decision to admit to admission – compared to 4% for July to September 2023.“We will continue to work to reduce our wait times and improve services for patients and their families.”