MORE than 14,000 patients waited over four hours for treatment at Warrington Hospital’s A&E department last year.

New figures released by NHS Digital have revealed that a total of 119,163 people presented at A&E in 2015/16, with only seven other hospital trusts in the north west having a higher number of patients.

The average stay in A&E was two hours and 54 minutes while 14,314 patients, 12 per cent, waited more than four hours in the department.

National guidelines state that 95 per cent of patients should be discharged or admitted within four hours of presenting at an A&E department.

Further statistics showed that a total of 17,185 patients, 14 per cent, were taken to A&E by ambulance or helicopter and the most common age group to present at the department were children aged up to nine years old.

Meanwhile, Monday was shown to be the most common day of the week for arrivals at A&E, while the busiest times of the day were between 10am and 2pm.