Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reduce the proportion of attendees who waited 12 hours or more from their time of arrival to be (a) transferred, (b) admitted and (c) discharged from Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust Emergency Department.

The Government has committed to supporting the National Health Service to improve performance, including at the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust (RCHT), and achieving the standards set out in the NHS Constitution, which includes that 95% of patients attending accident and emergency are admitted, transferred, or discharged within four hours.

We are also committed to improving accident and emergency waiting times for patients waiting over 12 hours to be admitted, transferred, or discharged through increasing bed capacity and improving hospital discharge, both nationally and at the RCHT.

The Government appointed the Professor Lord Darzi to lead an independent investigation of NHS performance. The investigation’s findings were published on 12 September 2024 and will feed into the Government’s work on a 10-year plan to radically reform the NHS and build a health service that is fit for the future.