Busiest month ever – but A&Es make steady improvement

Accident and Emergency departments in the region faced their busiest month ever in March – but still improved their performance against the NHS 4-hour treatment standard.

Latest figures show that March was the busiest ever for A&Es in England, as they treated 2.4 million patients – 16,000 more than the previous high in May 2024. Emergency departments in the North East and North Cumbria also broke records, seeing more than 154,741 patients.

Despite record numbers, A&E teams actually improved performance against the 4-hour treatment standard, reaching 80% for only the second time since the pandemic.

Winter is the most pressured time of year for the NHS, as healthcare leaders make detailed plans to ensure services continue to provide high quality care when cold weather, winter bugs and other events increase demand.

Between October and March, the NHS received 18,000 more 111 contacts, 15,000 more 999 calls, with 7,000 more ambulances arriving at hospitals, compared to the same period the previous year.

At the same time, category two ambulance response times - for serious conditions like stroke, chest pain or major burns - improved by almost five minutes. Average ambulance handover times reduced by 18%, with 7,000 fewer ambulances having to wait over 45 minutes before handing over to A&E teams. North East Ambulance Service continues to have some of the best response times in England.

Performance against the 4-hour target – the number of patients at A&E who are admitted, transferred, or discharged within four hours - improved by 1.3% for adults and 1.4% for children. The region's GP practices provided more than 9 million appointments between October and February.

With a high-profile advertising campaign spreading the word, the number of patients using their local pharmacy for minor ailments increased by 27%, helping protect other services for more urgent needs. The Be Wise, Immunise campaign also helped to support a 17% increase in the most vulnerable patients getting their Covid-19 jab.

Dr Neil O'Brien, a local GP and chief medical officer at North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board, said: "I'd like to say a big thank you to all NHS staff for their careful planning, dedication and hard work, and to our patients who have helped us by using 111, pharmacies and urgent treatment centres for common conditions.

"We are not yet where we want to be, but improving performance while helping record numbers of patients is an achievement we should recognise. It's encouraging to see fewer 12-hour waits in emergency departments, but one person waiting that long is one too many.

"We work strategically using data to understand where improvement is needed, and to reduce the number of people using emergency departments when it's not an emergency. Our winter initiatives like Acute Respiratory Hubs have made a real difference in helping people get same-day care closer to home rather than in A&E."
Ken Bremner MBE, Chair of the North East and North Cumbria Provider Collaborative, added: “This winter demonstrated what our NHS can achieve when organisations work together as a single system.

"Despite unprecedented demand, teams across hospitals, community services, mental health, primary care and the ambulance service supported record numbers of people and continued to improve performance.
"I want to thank staff across the region for their resilience, professionalism and commitment to patients, and for the collaborative approach that is helping us deliver safer, more timely care.”

Preparations for winter included a £1.5m investment in Acute Respiratory Infection Hubs, new mental health services including the region's first safe haven drop-in centres and a crisis text service, and improved processes so patients can move through the health and care system more smoothly and with fewer delays.

A System Coordination Centre provides real-time monitoring of demand so the region's hospitals can support each other when needed, while increased 'step down' services for patients moving into community care are mean fewer patients are stuck in hospital when they are well enough to be discharged.