Worst A&E waiting times in the country revealed in North West
- 13.11.2015
- HannahBottomley
- Clinical-negligence, Opinion, Clinical-negligence, Opinion, Clinical-negligence, Opinion, Clinical-negligence, Opinion, Clinical-negligence, Opinion, Clinical-negligence, Opinion, Clinical-negligence, Opinion, Clinical-negligence, Opinion
We were concerned to read about the recent worrying rise in waiting times across the UK and in particular how Stepping Hill Hospital, one of our local hospitals in the North West, had the worst A&E waiting times in the country with new figures showing just 59.3% of patients are being seen within the four hour target.
Patients who attend A&E do so as they need urgent and specialist medical advice and it is of course a concern to read that access to such medical advice is taking longer and longer.
Our main concern is that increased waiting times are indicative of increasingly busy hospitals, particularly A&E Departments, who are unable to cope with the raising number of patients which sadly increases the risk that illness or injuries may be missed.
We deal with patients who have experienced further injuries as a result of mistakes made in A&E Departments and hope that the recent number of hospitals declaring “major incidents” due to overstretched A&E resources does not increase the number of patients being subjected to mistakes by those treating them.