A SOUTHEND Hospital boss issued a stark warning to A&E staff in December as it was revealed thousands of patients were left waiting more than four hours for treatment.

NHS statistics show that patients at Southend Hospital waited longer on 2,342 accounting for more than one in four patients - or 26.2 per cent of all attendances.

This was worse than the previous December, when 21.6 per cent of patients were not seen in time.

The required target for A&E departments is to admit, transfer or discharge at least 95 per cent of patients within four hours of arrival.

The dire situation faced by emergency department staff was confirmed in a leaked e-mail seen by the Echo.

In the e-mail Mike Quinn, emergency care director of operations, warned staff on the hospital was in a “seriously compromised position - with a full A&E, high level of ambulance delays overnight, and all capacity utilised across the site”.

On December 8 he told staff: “We have 23 patients in the Emergency Department awaiting admission with a further 34 patients in assessment areas also requiring onward admission.

“At the time of this e-mail we have 50 patients in the Emergency Department.”

The hospital reported 28 breaches of the four-hour target for treatment for A&E patients since midnight on that date with performance at 30 per cent of the required target.

Mr Quinn goes on to call for some admissions to be suspended and adds: “Today is going to be another extremely tough day and your continued resilience, co-operation and support is required.

“We need to continue to support and look after each other as pressures continue.”

Denise Townsend, Director of Nursing at Southend Hospital, said: “During this busy time for the whole of the NHS, we are also seeing really high numbers of acutely unwell patients through our doors who need to be admitted to hospital.

"In addition to regular capacity update meetings, status e-mails go out to all staff to ensure they understand our hospital status and the actions needed to maintain patient safety and the flow of patients through hospital.”

Basildon Hospital has 'worst performance in five years'

BASILDON Hospital reported its worst A&E performance in five years, with 2,000 patients left more than four hours before being seen, latest figures reveal.

The required target for A&E departments is to admit, transfer or discharge at least 95 per cent of patients within four hours of arrival.

But NHS statistics show that patients at Basildon Hospital waited longer on 1,999 occasions in December – or 16.5 per cent of all attendances.

This was the worst Christmas performance for December since 2015, the earliest period for which data is available.

Fiona Ryan, director of operations for urgent and emergency care at Basildon Hospital, said: “Basildon Hospital is currently facing exceptionally high demand for urgent and emergency care services.

“Over the Christmas period, our staff worked incredibly hard and managed to see and treat 84.90 per cent of A&E patients within four hours. This is the third highest regionally for our A&E performance.

“This winter, we have built a new ward with an additional 37-bed capacity in order to support increased demand and improve our patient’s experience.

“We are also working with our hospital and community partners who are on daily high alert to respond to the needs of our local community at one of our busiest times of the year.”

Nationally, just 79.8 per cent of patients were seen within four hours – the worst performance for any month since records began in 2010.

A&E departments dealt with 2.2 million visits in December – a 6.5 per cent rise on the same month the previous year.

President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine Dr Katherine Henderson, said: “These figures show that our emergency departments are at their limits. The current situation is very difficult for both patients and staff. We fear though that things will get worse before they get better.

Change is coming but we need election promises kept.”