Drop in visits to A&E at East Sussex Healthcare last month

Fewer patients visited A&E at East Sussex Healthcare last month – and attendances were lower than over the same period last year, figures reveal.

NHS England figures show 13,169 patients visited A&E at East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust in June.

That was a drop of 3% on the 13,539 visits recorded during May, and 2% lower than the 13,425 patients seen in June 2021.

The figures show attendances were above the levels seen in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic – in June 2020, there were 9,815 visits to A&E departments run by East Sussex Healthcare.

The majority of attendances last month were via major A&E departments – those with full resuscitation equipment and 24-hour consultant-led care – while 25% were via minor injury units.

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

That was in line with May, and the same number as were seen during June 2021.

At East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust:

In June:

There were 2,291 booked appointments, up from 2,217 in May

75% of arrivals were seen within four hours, against an NHS target of 95%

161 patients waited longer than four hours for treatment following a decision to admit – 1% of patients

Separate NHS Digital data reveals that in May:

The median time to treatment was 128 minutes. The median average is used to ensure figures are not skewed by particularly long or short waiting times

Around 7% of patients left before being treated