Top doc slams 'truly dire' waiting times

MORE patients at Greater Manchester's hospitals faced long waits for A&E and ambulance services in July than any other month on record, figures show.

- HELENA VESTY & CLAIRE MILLER

Last month in Greater Manchester, 1,751 people endured more than 12 hours of waiting in A&E for a bed on a ward, after medics decided they were unwell enough to be admitted.

That figure comes as a stark difference from just 158 patients facing this wait in July 2021, according to data published by NHS England.

It marks the highest number of people facing long waits for a ward bed since monthly records began in June 2015.

A top doctor described the record waits as 'truly dire!

Ambulance waiting times were also longer than in previous months.

North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) took eight minutes and 39 seconds on average to respond to the highest priority life-threatening calls (category one), above the seven-minute target. Category two emergency calls which include urgent illnesses and injuries such as heart attacks and strokes took an average of 50 minutes and 29 seconds in July, far beyond the 18-minute average response time.

A total of 118,586 people arrived at Greater Manchester's A&Es in July, down from 119,092 in June.

Almost 40 percent of them faced waiting more than four hours before being admitted, discharged or transferred the NHS target states that only 5pc should wait this long.