NHS staff working in A&E departments are in the middle of their busiest summer ever with a total of 4.6 million attendances over the last two months – higher than any other June and July, new figures have revealed.
The latest performance data shows that the three busiest ever months for A&E staff have been in 2024, with 77,945 attendances per day in May, 76,469 in June and 74,459 in March.
Despite the pressure, hardworking NHS staff assessed and completed the treatment of more than three quarters of patients within four hours in A&E in July, the highest proportion since September 2021 but still well below the constitutional standard of 95 per cent.
Ambulance services responded to more than 753,300 incidents last month, with around 26,500 calls to 999 answered per day – up by six per cent on the same month last year.
Professor Sir Stephen Powis, NHS national medical director said: “Nobody in the NHS wants to see patients experiencing long delays and we are committed to working with the government to create a 10-year plan for health that includes a clear plan to bring waits down.
“In the meantime, staff continue to work incredibly hard to deliver the best possible care for patients, and it is vital that people continue to come forward when they have health concerns”.
Hospitals reported that the overall waiting list for elective care rose again in June to 7.62 million, up 19,100 on May, with an estimated total of 6.39 million patients waiting.
Services faced four days of industrial action by junior doctors during this period with over 61,000 acute appointments needing to be rescheduled, bringing the total cumulative impact on appointments since strikes first began to nearly 1.5 million.
On cancer, the NHS met the 28-day faster diagnosis standard for the second month in a row with more than three quarters of patients receiving the all clear or a definitive diagnosis within four weeks in June.
While there is more to do to ensure that people get timely cancer treatment, the number of people being referred for urgent checks for cancer remains high with almost 260,000 in June.
Bed capacity remains under pressure in hospitals across the country with only 44 per cent of patients discharged when they were ready last month, leading to an average of 12,326 patients a day spending more time in hospital than needed.
