Hospitals leave 20,000 patients waiting more than four hours in A&E as winter pressure mounts

Sandwell's NHS Trust has failed to meet its four-hour treatment target every month during 2016, while it has been revealed one patient was kept waiting for more than 12 hours during October.

It comes as hospital bosses admitted there were concerns about how the sites would cope over the Christmas period.

The number of patients who waited more than four hours – the NHS-wide standard for A&E treatment – at Sandwell and City Hospitals rose again from 2,051 in September to 2,676 in October as staff battled to cope with the numbers coming into the emergency department.

NHS guidelines state that patients should never be left waiting to be seen for 12 hours - and the incident has been listed by the trust which runs the hospital as a 'never event'.

Just 86 per cent of patients were treated within four hours in October – well below the NHS national target of 95 per cent.

Toby Lewis, chief executive of the Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Hospital Trust, has admitted both Sandwell and City Hospitals had 'faced very considerable pressure' in recent months.

The strain on A&E departments is expected to increase further as temperatures plummet in the run-up the busy Christmas period.

Figures showed that the trust had been below the 95 per cent target throughout 2016, with the number of patients waiting highest during October.

Mr Lewis said it was up to bosses to plan for the hectic Christmas period.

He said: "Our four-hour standard performance has fallen sharply. The biggest single factor on most days has related to discharge volume and discharge timing.

"Delayed transfers of care are a part of that picture, but the majority of the issue is in less complex discharges."

He added: " Having submitted an assurance return confirming that we are not assured about quality of care and service coverage for the Christmas period, it will be important we can finalise there both an immediate plan for the period over statutory holiday, and a longer term mathematical model which confirms the scale of home care and care home provision needed locally to match a hugely ageing population."

Health bosses are aiming to transform care in Sandwell over the next few years with the opening of the new Midland Metropolitan 'super hospital'. The hospital is currently under construction in Grove Lane, Smethwick and is due to open in autumn 2018.

Sandwell Hospital and City Hospital, the other two units run by the trust, will be downscaled when the new hospital opens.