Two-and-a-half hours revealed as average stay in A&E for patients
Patients going into A&E across the Black Country and Staffordshire should expect a two-and-a-half hour stay.
New figures have revealed the average time spent at hospitals by patients from when they enter A&E until they are discharged.
Many patients have faced much longer waits in crowded departments with hospitals in the region struggling to meet national waiting time targets over the last year, as emergency departments have come under significant pressure.
Patients needing emergency care spent the longest at Walsall Manor Hospital during April, with an average stay of two hours and 43 minutes. University Hospital North Midlands Trust (UNMH), which runs Stafford County Hospital, was close behind on two hours and 42 minutes, followed by Russells Hall Hospital in Dudley where the average wait was two hours and 41 minutes.
The average stay at Sandwell General and City Hospital in Birmingham was slightly lower at two hours and 14 minutes, while at New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton it was two hours and 10 minutes.
The longest individual waits at hospitals in the region during April were also revealed, with one person spending 24 hours at a Staffordshire hospital. Another patient spent 23 hours at New Cross. Walsall Manor, County Hospital in Stafford and Sandwell General have fallen way short of the target of having 95 per cent of patients seen within four hours over the last year.
At the start of the year, one in five patients were waiting more than four hours at Walsall Manor.
Walsall Manor’s director of nursing Rachel Overfield said the hospital was working hard to improve waiting times, while Gwen Nuttall chief operating officer at New Cross said the hospital had experienced ‘unprecedented’ challenges.
Diane Wake, chief executive at the trust which runs Russells Hall, said prioritising patients most in need often led to longer waits for others. UNMH bosses said they had tried to cut waiting times.
