2220 patients faced 12-hour A&E waits in our area

Shocking new figures released this week show that 2220 local patients waited more than 12 hours in A&E in February.

The statistics, released for the first time this week by NHS England, show the number of people who waited more than 12 hours from arriving at A&E to being admitted, transferred or discharged.

Those 2220 people represent a whopping 16% of patients who attended the A&E departments of the University Hospitals of Burton and Derby in February. So, if you had attended A&E in February you had a one in six chance of experiencing a dangerous 12 hour wait.

These long A&E waits can have serious consequences for patients. The Royal College of Emergency Medicine has warned that "evidence shows delays to care and long waits to admission to hospital increase a patient's risk of harm and death", even after they leave A&E.

The Liberal Democrats are calling for a rescue plan for local health services, including recruiting more GPs and bringing in a Carer's Minimum Wage to tackle staff shortages in social care. This would help reduce pressure on overstretched hospitals and ambulance services.