Norfolk and Norwich hospital in top 10 shortest A&E waits

Latest waiting time statistics have shown that eight out of 10 patients who attend A&E at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital are dealt with in less than four hours.

The figure means that in January, there were only eight hospitals nationwide where a greater proportion were treated within the target time.

The first month of 2023 saw 18,213 people attend the department, with 14,257 either discharged or admitted into hospital within four hours.

It also meant that the hospital outperformed the national average of 72.4pc.

Sam Higginson, the hospital's chief executive, said: "The improvement to our emergency department performance is a testament to the hard work of our urgent and emergency care teams."

He said this included using GPs to assess needs as people arrive and providing same day emergency care units.

He added: "The health and care system in Norfolk and Waveney continues to experience high levels of demand and we know we have further work to do across the board to reduce pressure on our inpatient wards and the number of delayed discharges, which will improve our ambulance handover times and the times patients wait to be admitted."

It is the second consecutive month that the hospital has outperformed national averages.

However, the region's other two acute hospitals continue to find this challenging.

At Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn, just 58pc of patients were dealt with in under four hours.

It comes after several warnings from bosses that the department is over-subscribed and in desperate need of replacement - with plans to do so already lodged.

Meanwhile, at the James Paget University Hospital in Gorleston, the A&E department four-hour figure was 68.2pc.