Drop in visits to A&E at Gateshead Health last month

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

NHS England figures show 9,659 patients visited A&E at Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust in June.

That was a drop of 1% on the 9,716 visits recorded during May, but 15% more than the 8,394 patients seen in June 2021.

The figures show attendances were above the levels seen in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic – in June 2020, there were 6,220 visits to A&E departments run by Gateshead Health.

The majority of attendances last month were via major A&E departments – those with full resuscitation equipment and 24-hour consultant-led care – while 38% were via minor injury units.

Across England, A&E departments received 2.2 million visits last month.

That was in line with May, and the same number as were seen during June 2021.

At Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust:

In June:

There were 45 booked appointments, up from 35 in May

77% of arrivals were seen within four hours, against an NHS target of 95%

929 patients waited longer than four hours for treatment following a decision to admit – 10% of patients

Of those, 11 were delayed by more than 12 hours

Separate NHS Digital data reveals that in May:

The median time to treatment was 61 minutes. The median average is used to ensure figures are not skewed by particularly long or short waiting times

Around 5% of patients left before being treated