Hospital waiting times are rising

Just over 66.6% of patients were treated within four hours during June this year - substantially fewer than the same month last year when more than 73% of patients were treated within four hours.

With 33.4 per cent of patients waiting longer than four hours to be treated, Craigavon had the highest percentage after Causeway, Royal Victoria and Antrim Area Hospitals.

This was from a total attendance this year of 7,056 patients compared to 7,092 last year.

Craigavon Area reported the longest median waiting time (1 hour 27 Minutes) from triage to start of treatment during March 2016, whilst South West Acute (31 minutes) reported the shortest median waiting time.

For 95% of patients, visiting Craigavon hospital meant a wait of amost four hours on average.

Craigavon had one of the highest numbers of people waiting for up to 12 hours throughout the whole of Northern Ireland.

In April this year 77 people waited for up to 12 hours with only the Ulster Hospital and the Royal Victoria Hospital reporting a higher number.

In May the number reduced to 59 while in June it was just 19 patients who were left waiting for 12 hours.

This is a significant jump as in June 2015 no patients had to wait longer than 12 hours.

Between April and June this year, between 66 and 68% of patients waited less than four hours to be seen.

The majority of patients at Craigavon were seen by triage within half an hour of arrival.

However, for 95% of patients, it took almost four hours between triage and the start of their treatment.

For those admitted, 95% had to wait almost 12 hours in June, a huge leap from the nine hours 28 minutes they had to wait in June 2015.