Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average waiting time in A&E departments has been (a) nationwide, (b) in the East of England and (c) in the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow in each of the last 10 years.

Weekly situation reports collected by NHS England are the official source of information about accident and emergency waiting times. These measure the number of patients admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours of arrival at an accident and emergency department, but do not provide information on average waiting times.

Information is available in hospital episode statistics from 2007-08 on average waiting times to assessment, treatment and departure in accident and emergency departments, and is shown in the following tables. The duration to departure times are most closely aligned to the official information.

Table 1: Mean and median duration to assessment in minutes for attendances at accident and emergency departments, 2007-08 to 2012-13

Table 2: Mean and median duration to treatment in minutes for attendances at accident and emergency departments, 2007-08 to 2012-13

Table 3: Mean and median duration to departure in minutes for attendances at accident and emergency departments, 2007-08 to 2012-13

Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), Health and Social Care Information Centre.

Notes:

1. HES for accident and emergency (A&E) were first collected for 2007-08.

2. The recording of duration in HES A&E is not mandatory, and this may have particularly affected the quality of recorded durations to assessment and treatment.

3. Information relates to all types of accident and emergency departments.

4. Duration to assessment is the total amount of time in minutes between the patients’ arrival and their initial assessment in the A&E department. This is calculated as the difference in time from arrival at A&E to the time when the patient is initially assessed.

5. Duration to treatment is the total amount of time in minutes between the patients’ arrival and the start of their treatment. This is calculated as the difference in time from arrival at A&E to the time when the patient began treatment.

6. Duration to departure is total amount of time spent in minutes in an A&E department. This is calculated as the difference in time from arrival at A&E to the time when the patient is discharged from A&E care. This includes being admitted to hospital, dying in the department, discharged with no follow up or discharged and referred to another specialist department.