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

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

NHS England figures show 12,904 patients visited A&E at East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust in October.

That was a rise of 6% on the 12,139 visits recorded during September, but 1% lower than the 12,976 patients seen in October 2021.

The figures show attendances were above the levels seen two years ago – in October 2020, there were 10,633 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 23% were via minor injury units.

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

That was an increase of 9% compared to September, and a similar number as were seen during October 2021.

At East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust:

In October:

There were 2,065 booked appointments, up from 1,767 in September

65% of arrivals were seen within four hours, against an NHS target of 95%

256 patients waited longer than four hours for treatment following a decision to admit – 2% of patients

Separate NHS Digital data reveals that in September:

The median time to treatment was 131.5 minutes. The median average is used to ensure figures are not skewed by particularly long or short waiting times

Around 8% of patients left before being treated