NHS Performance Tracker

England

Analysis of March NHS England performance figures can be found below.

Flourish slides can be found here.

Summary:

• It was the worst March for 12-hour performance since records began, with one in 10 patients waiting this long
• In March 2024, 147,650 patients waited 12 hours or more from their time of arrival. This is the highest number of 12-hour waits for March on record.
• There were 1,462,477 Type 1 attendances, the highest monthly attendance for any month on record
• There were 419,826 emergency admissions via Type 1 Emergency Departments – the highest number of admissions for any month on record
• More than half of patients who no longer met the criteria to reside remained in hospital (54.1%).

Supplementary ECDS Analysis March 2024 final (12 hour length of stay data measured from the time of arrival) data shows:

• 10.3% of all Type 1 Emergency Department attendances waited 12 hours or more in March
• This is a decrease of one percentage point from the previous month, and a decrease of 0.5 percentage points compared to March 2023

The latest Emergency Department performance figures published by NHS England for March 2024 for show:

• There were 1,462,477 Type 1 attendances, the highest monthly attendance for any month on record and an increase of 6.5% compared with March 2023
• There were 419,826 emergency admissions via Type 1 Emergency Departments – the highest number of admissions for any month on record. This is an increase of 37,693 admissions compared to March 2023
• The four-hour target in Type 1 Emergency Departments stood at 60.9%, an increase of 4.4 percentage points compared to last month and 4.1 percentage points compared to March 2023
• The aggregate four-hour target stood at 74.2%. This is 1.8 percentage points lower than the Government’s intermediary threshold target of 76% to be hit by March 2024
• There is a 13.3 percentage point difference between aggregate and Type 1 four-hour performance
• The number of patients waiting 12 hours or more from the decision made to admit them stood at 42,968, a decrease of 1,449 patients compared to last month but an increase of 3,297 when compared to March 2023

Beds data for March 2024 show:

• There were 101,183 Type 1 G&A beds available. This is 459 fewer beds than last month but 1,960 more than March 2023
• Bed occupancy stood at 94%, representing a decrease of 0.1 percentage points compared to last month, and 0.3 percentage points less compared to March 2023
• Based on the data for this month, there are 10,681 more beds required to bring bed occupancy down to 85%.

Delay Discharges

• In March 2024, a daily average number of 13,068 patients remained in hospital while no longer meeting the criteria to reside. This is a decrease of 540 when compared with March 2023 and a decrease of 622 compared with last month
• More than half of patients who no longer met the criteria to reside remained in hospital (54.1%). This is a decrease of 3.5 percentage points from March 2023 (57.6%), and a decrease of 1.5 percentage points from last month (55.6%).
• There was a weekly average of 105,455 additional bed days for patients with a length of stay over 21 days, a decrease of 6.6% when compared with March 2023 and a decrease of 3% compared to last month.

Scotland

Emergency Department performance data for Scotland, February 2024:

Flourish slides: https://public.flourish.studio/story/1848443/

Summary:

• There has been improvement since January. However, it was the worst February on record for four, eight, and twelve-hour performance in Scotland.
• One in three patients waited four hours or more in Emergency Departments, one in eight waited eight hours or more, and one in 18 waited 12 hours or more.
• Since February 2017, the numbers waiting four hours or more has increased by more five times (370%), the numbers waiting more than eight hours by 15 times (1446%), and the numbers waiting more than 12 hours by seven times (571%). This is despite attendance only increasing by 8% from February 2017.

Data:

• In February 2024, there were 106,524 at major Emergency Departments in Scotland. This is a decrease of 1.8% from the previous month.
  • 63.8% of patients were seen within four hours at major (Type 1) Emergency Departments. This is the worst four-hour performance for any February since records began.
  • This is an increase of 1.8 percentage points from the previous month and a decrease of 2.6 percentage points from February 2023.
  • 38,560 (37.8%) patients waited over four hours in major Emergency Departments. This is a 1.04% increase from the previous month (41,161) and a four percent decrease from last February (32,101)
  • The number of patients waiting more than four hours has increased by more than five times compared to February 2017 (8,199)

• 13,823 (13%) patients waited eight hours or more in Emergency Departments.
  • This is the highest proportion of eight hour waits for any February on record.
  • The proportion waiting this long has decreased by 2.8 percentage points from the previous month and has increased by 2.2 percentage points compared to February 2023.
  • The numbers waiting more than eight hours is 15 times the numbers that waited this long in February 2017 (894).

• 5,995 (5.6%) patients waited twelve hours or more in Emergency Departments.
  • This is the largest proportion of 12 hour waits for any February on record.
  • The proportion waiting this long has decreased by 2.3 percentage points from last month but increased by 0.8 percentage points from February last year.
  • The numbers waiting more than 12 hours is seven times the numbers in February 2017 (894).
• There were 1,874 beds occupied due to delayed discharges, an increase of eight from the previous month and the highest February on record.
  • There was a total of 54,355 days spent in hospital by people whose discharge was delayed.

Wales

Wales NHS Emergency Department Performance Data – March 2024

Flourish slides can be found here.

Summary:

• The proportion of four and eight-hour waits in March increased from February whilst the proportion of 12-hour waits decreased slightly. This was the second worst March on record across all metrics, after March 2022.
• 43.2% of patients waited four hours or longer in an Emergency Department. 24% (nearly one in four patients) waited eight hours or longer. And 15.3% (one in seven) waited 12 hours or longer.
• Since March 2017, the numbers waiting four hours or more increased by 1.5 times (80%), the numbers waiting more than eight hours by nearly 2.5 times (145%), and the numbers waiting more than 12 hours by more than triple (221%). This is despite attendance decreasing by 1.3% in the same period.

Figures:

• 66,894 people attended major emergency care facilities in March 2024.
• Overall, 56.8% of patients in major EDs were admitted, transferred, or discharged within four hours from arrival.
  • This is a 0.5 percentage-point decrease from last month, and a 3.1 percentage-point decrease compared to March 2023.
  • 43.2% of patients in major EDs waited longer than four hours (28,923 patients). The number of patients waiting more than four hours has increased by 10.2% compared with last month (26,235).
  • The number of people waiting more than four hours has increased by nearly double (80.1%) compared with March 2017 (16,063).

• 24% of major ED attendances waited more than eight hours (16,071 patients).
  • This means that nearly one in four patients were delayed eight hours or more at a major emergency department. It is the same percentage as last month and an increase of 0.8 percentage points compared to March 2023.
  • The number of people waiting more than eight hours has increased by two and a half times (145%) compared with March 2017 (6,558).

• 15.3% of major ED attendances waited more than 12 hours (10,234 patients).
  • This means more than one in seven patients were delayed by 12 hours or more. This is a 0.2 percentage point decrease on last month and an increase of 0.2 percentage points compared to March 2023.
  • The number of people waiting more than 12 hours has more than tripled (221.7%) compared with March 2017 (3,181).

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland Quarter 4 2023/24 (Jan-Mar 2024) performance data:

Flourish slides can be found here.

Summary:

• January to March 2024 was the worst quarter on record for four and 12-hour performance in Northern Ireland
• Only 37.4% of patients spent less than four hours in ED
• One in five patients (20.2%) had to wait longer than 12 hours in the ED
• The median time that admitted patients waited in an ED was just under 16 hours. More than three times longer than the time spent by discharged patients
• Average attendance was lower than any quarter since Quarter 4 2020/21.

Figures:

• The average number of monthly attendances for this quarter was 45,503. 5.7 percent less than last quarter and 14.3 percent less than Quarter 4 2022-23
• On average, 37.4% of patients were seen and resulted in a subsequent admission, transfer, or discharge within four hours for each month.
  • This is the worst four-hour performance for any quarter on record
  • It is 2.9 percentage points less than last quarter and 5.4 percentage points less than Quarter 4 2022-23
  • January was the worst month ever for four-hour performance.
• On average, 20.2% of patients waited more than 12 hours in an Emergency Department.
  • This is the worst 12-hour performance for any quarter on record
  • More than one in five patients had to wait longer than 12 hours in the ED
  • A total of 27,553 people waited longer than 12 hours. This is nine times more than Quarter 4 2016/17.
• The average January to March for the median time that admitted patients spent in an Emergency Department was 15 hours 57 minutes
  • This is nearly two hours more than the previous quarter (14 hours 0 minutes)
  • This is 10 hours 14 minutes more than the average for Quarter 4 2016/17 (5 hours 43 minutes)
  • Admitted patients spent on average more than three times longer in an Emergency Department than those who were discharged home, who spent on average 4 hours 32 minutes in ED.