A&E figures are on the rise (From Warrington Guardian)

A&E figures are on the rise

9:20am Wednesday 12th September 2012 in News

ATTENDANCE figures at A&E in Warrington Hospital are steadily rising each year and have increased by more than 9,000 people since 2008/09, according to statistics.

The Warrington Guardian reported in February and April this year the hospital had experienced some of the busiest days in its history with more than 100,000 patients visit the department in 2011/12 compared to more than 91,000 four years ago.

Since then we have been flooded with readers’ complaints suggesting the problem lies with GP surgeries after claims patients had to wait up to eight days for an appointment.

But the Warrington Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has now said it is making changes to ease the pressure on A&E.

A spokesman said: “The commissioning of high quality and accessible urgent care services continues as a priority for Warrington CCG. “We continually monitor the feedback we get from patients in regard to GP appointments and their booking experience, and in response we are currently implementing a new ‘Urgent care strategy’.

“The strategy will provide additional, more seamless services for patients requiring urgent treatment, outside of ambulance and emergency services.

“We aim to ensure that there are complimentary services, which will help avoid unnecessary pressures on our existing hospital A&E teams, so they can be left to treat the most serious emergency cases.

“The strategy will give patients greater access to urgent care services that are more primary and community services based.”

The news follows the NHS Information Centre publishing the number of written complaints from patients in the last year.

The 5 Boroughs Partnership NHS Trust received 242 complaints in the last year compared to 140 in 2009-10.

A spokesman said: “In 2010/11 we had 180 written complaints and, as is our right as a Foundation Trust, we did not report our figures to the Information Centre that year but did include them in our publically available annual report and quality accounts.

“In 2011/12 we had 174 written complaints related to the same services as in previous years and a further 68 written complaints from the community services which we acquired at the start of that period.”