Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to reduce A&E waiting times at York Hospital for residents of Selby and Ainsty constituency.

Our two-year urgent and emergency care recovery plan, backed by £1 billion of dedicated funding, was published in January 2023, to drive sustained improvements in urgent and emergency care waiting times.

At York Hospital, an expanded and redesigned emergency department was opened in July 2023. This has improved the provision of services, including same day emergency care (SDEC). SDEC supports patients’ access to timely diagnosis and treatment, without the need for admission to hospital.

The latest published data shows that at York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the proportion of patients waiting 12-hours from decision-to-admit to admission has reduced by 6.9% in March 2024 compared to the previous year.