Rise in visits to A&E at Bedfordshire Hospitals Trust

More patients visited A&E at Bedfordshire Hospitals Trust last month, with demand rising above the levels seen over the same period last year.

NHS England figures show 22,631 patients visited A&E at Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in March.

That was a rise of 19% on the 18,990 visits recorded during February, and 26% more than the 17,917 patients seen in March 2021.

The figures show attendances were above the levels seen at the start of the coronavirus pandemic – in March 2020, there were 15,791 visits to A&E at Bedfordshire Hospitals Trust.

The majority of attendances last month were via major A&E departments – those with full resuscitation equipment and 24-hour consultant-led care – while 26% were via minor injury units.

Across England, A&E departments received 2.2 million visits last month.

That was an increase of 19% compared to February, and 29% more than the 1.7 million seen during March 2021.

At Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust:

In March:

There were 560 booked appointments, up from 482 in February

98 patients waited longer than four hours for treatment following a decision to admit – less than 0.5% of patients

Of those, two were delayed by more than 12 hours

Separate NHS Digital data reveals that in February:

The median time to treatment was 100 minutes. The median average is used to ensure figures are not skewed by particularly long or short waiting times

Around 4% of patients left before being treated