Colchester NHS Trust sees thousands wait for over 4 hours at A&E

The East Suffolk and North Essex Foundation NHS Trust (ESNEFT) has been ranked as the third worst for A&E waiting times in the three months between April and June last year.

According to data collated and published by experts at ePower Trucks, 25.6 per cent of attendees - or equalling 19,666 people - had to wait longer than four hours in A&E.

The Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, meanwhile, was ranked as the second worst, with 31.3 per cent of patient - or 30,863 people waiting more than four hours.

At the Princess Alexandra Trust, meanwhile, 45.7 per cent of attendees - which is equivalent to 14,202 people - waited for above average times.

The rankings were determined by NHS data but did not include the Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust nor the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust due to no data being available.  

A spokesman for ESNEFT said: “The quarterly figures quoted are accurate, but they need to be put into context.

“The number of patients waiting more than four hours is skewed by the number of patients who use our Urgent and Emergency Care services.

“As such, picking out the three highest ranking trusts in this way is distorting.”

Trust bosses also stressed that in the second quarter, the percentage of people seen within four hours stood at 74.4 per cent, which is better than the national average of 72.9 per cent per quarter.

Targets - Dr Angela Tillett said some people with less urgent needs unfortunately had to wait longer (Image: ESNEFT)

Gazette reader Lyndall Rosewarne, however, said she waited "four and a bit hours" for a broken arm but added staff were "excellent, knowledgeable and good humoured throughout".

Reader Jackie High revealed in November 2022, after being in a lot of pain following a fall in the kitchen, she had to sit on her walker due to the "heaving" Colchester Hospital waiting room, being there for an "awfully long" ten hours. 

Other patients, meanwhile, such as Andrew Field, put the long waiting times down to "too many" people heading to hospital despite not needing A&E "in the first place".

Dr Angela Tillett, deputy chief executive at ESNEFT, said: “We assess each patient when they arrive so we can be sure we treat those with the most urgent clinical needs first. 

“This does mean some people with less urgent needs have to wait longer than we'd like them to, unfortunately.

"We continue to work with health and social care teams to provide care and treatment at home, wherever it's possible. We also carry out regular reviews of our ways of working to speed up the hospital discharge process."