The latest national A&E figures, published on Thursday 14 March by NHS England, saw our teams achieve the best performance in a month since July 2020 for All Types. This was despite Queen’s Hospital seeing the biggest increase in ambulances across the whole of London with 600 more, compared to February 2023.

For all patients attending A&E, 75.08 per cent were seen and treated within four hours, 7,000 more patients (out of 28,000 who attended) compared to last February. This puts us on track to hit the national 76 per cent recovery target for overall performance by the end of March, with the help of PELC, a GP cooperative which runs our urgent treatment centres.

And our Type 1 performance (those who are most seriously ill), has jumped over 20 per cent since January 2023, to 52.6 per cent.

Our ongoing improvement has seen us rise from one of the worse performing trusts to one of the top 25 per cent in England, and we were the most improved trust in England for Type 1 performance by the end of 2023.

Matthew Trainer, our Chief Executive, said:

Our teams have worked very hard to deliver our best performance in many years. Almost 7,000 more patients were seen and treated within four hours this February compared to last year. This is great to see and is a testament to our clinical and operational teams.

We are still struggling with crowding in our A&Es, particularly at Queen’s Hospital where over 600 people a day are coming through a department designed for 300. This means too many older people are spending the night on beds in corridors, and we have lots more to do to reduce waits for everyone.

Initiatives which have helped contribute to our progress include Same Day Emergency Care departments, to reduce the number of people staying overnight, improved operational leadership and clinical engagement, and virtual wards.

Our on-going improvement, alongside our local healthcare partners, has also been recognised by NHS England.