Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the average waiting times for treatment in the accident and emergency departments of the (a) Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospital NHS Trust, (b) St Helens and Knowsley Hospital Services NHS Trust, (c) Aintree University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, (d) Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, (e) Southport and Ormskirk NHS Trust in the last six months.

NHS Digital, Hospital Episode Statistics measure accident and emergency waiting times from arrival to assessment, treatment and departure. A table showing the mean and median waiting times for the last six months is below for Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospital NHS Trust, St Helens and Knowsley Hospital Services NHS Trust, Aintree University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Southport and Ormskirk NHS Trust. Data for 2015-16 and 2016-17 is provisional and may be subject to in-year changes.

Mean and median duration in minutes to assessment¹, treatment² and departure³ for unplanned accident and emergency (A&E) attendances⁴ at specified providers for February to July 2016 (provisional data)⁵

Source: Hospital Episode Statistics, NHS Digital

Notes:

Activity in English National Health Service hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector.

¹ Mean and Median: The mean (average) and median (middle) in ranking when all values are sorted in order) duration in minutes to assessment, treatment or duration.

² Duration to assessment: This 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.

³ Duration to treatment: This 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.

⁴ Duration to departure: This 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.

⁵ 2015-16 and 2016-17 is provisional data and may be incomplete or contain errors for which no adjustments have yet been made.