Drop in visits to A&E at the Whittington Hospital last month

Fewer patients visited A&E at the Whittington Hospital last month – but attendances were higher than over the same period last year, figures reveal.

NHS England figures show 9,089 patients visited A&E at Whittington Health NHS Trust in November.

That was a drop of 4% on the 9,432 visits recorded during October, but 15% more than the 7,887 patients seen in November 2020.

The figures show attendances were below the levels seen before the coronavirus pandemic – in November 2019, there were 9,372 visits to A&E at the Whittington Hospital.

All of last month's attendances were via major A&E departments – those with full resuscitation equipment and 24-hour consultant-led care.

Across England, A&E departments received 2 million visits last month.

That was a decrease of 6% compared to October, but 37% more than the 1.5 million seen during November 2020.

At Whittington Health NHS Trust:

In November:

76% of arrivals were seen within four hours, against an NHS target of 95%

459 patients waited longer than four hours for treatment following a decision to admit

Of those, seven were delayed by more than 12 hours

Separate NHS Digital data reveals that in October:

The median time to treatment was 103 minutes

Around 9% of patients left before being treated