Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of trends in the level of A&E waiting times (a) at University Hospital Coventry & Warwickshire and (b) in England.

Accident and emergency (A&E) attendances have increased both nationally and locally on the previous year, December 2019 A&E attendances were 6.5% up nationally over December 2018, the position at University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) was up by 6.6% (4.1% year to date). Latest published performance data for January against the 4 hour A&E performance standard was 77.9% for UHCW compared to 84.6% in January 2019. The latest published national performance for January against the standard was 79.8% compared to 84.5% in January 2019.

The large growth in attendances has had an impact on delivery of the four hour A&E performance standard. The NHS Long Term Plan’s Urgent and Emergency Care reform agenda will look to address this through:

- Urgent Treatment Centres that will reduce attendance at, and conveyance to, A&E;

- Same Day Emergency Care which will increase the proportion of acute admissions discharged on the day of attendance from a fifth to a third; and

- To reduce the number of patients that have unnecessary long lengths of stay (+21 days) in hospital and Delayed Transfer of Care - where patients are still in hospital once medically fit to be discharged back into the community.