One in five emergency patients wait over four hours

Eighty per cent of patients were either treated, discharged or admitted within four hours of their arrival at the department during the month.

Twelve patients had to wait more than 12 hours according to the latest Department of Health statistics.

A total of 4,135 patients arrived at the Altnagelvin emergency department in November.

The figures are contained in a bulletin entitled Emergency Care Waiting Time Statistics: November 2010.

Across the province 82.3 per cent of patients were either treated and discharged or admitted within four hours of their arrival in an emergency care department, compared to 82.3 per cent in October 2010 and 83.1 per cent in September 2010.

During November 2010, all (100.0 per cent) attendances at Type 3 emergency care departments were treated and discharged, or admitted within 4 hours of their arrival, compared with 90.1 per cent in Type 2 departments and 79.3 per cent in Type 1 departments.

A total of 774 patients waited longer than 12 hours across all emergency care departments in November 2010, compared to 384 in October 2010 and 320 in September 2010.

There were a total of 53,973 attendances at emergency care departments for the month of November 2010, compared with 58,000 in October 2010 and 58,096 in September 2010.