Numbers attending Craigavon A&E drop

The busy ED saw 7,200 attendances in December, compared to 7,200 in 2017 - a significant drop of almost 1,200, according to the latest statistics from the Department of Health.

In the Craigavon area new attendances at ED were down from 6,880 in December 2017 to 6,802 in December 2018.

Craigavon had the lowest performance in dealing with patients within the four hour window with just 54.2% of attendants seen within that time. That is worse than last year when it was 57%.

On the positive side the numbers having to wait up to 12 hours in Craigavon Emergency Department fell from 343 in December 2017 to 282 last December.

However Craigavon scored the lowest percentage of patients triaged within the two hour target period, with just 61.8%.

Craigavon reported the longest average waiting time between triage and the start of treatment (1 hour 31 minutes) when the average across NI hospitals was 57 minutes whilst Causeway (28 minutes) reported the shortest average waiting time.

In December last 95 per cent of patients were discharged within eight hours and six minutes from their arrival at Craigavon Emergency Department.

More patients attended Antrim Area hospital last December than the eyear before with a total of 7,245 patients compared to 7,180 in December 2017. Almost a quarter of attendances at the Ulster (23.6%) and Antrim Area (23.3%) had been referred by a GP during December 2018, compared with 11.4% of attendances in Altnagelvin Area.

The Ulster (632) and Antrim Area (380) reported the highest numbers of patients waiting over the 12 hours during December 2018.

In December last 95 per cent of patients were discharged within seven hours and 45 mintues of their arrival at Antrim Emergency Department.