{"id":695,"date":"2013-01-25T12:48:05","date_gmt":"2013-01-25T12:48:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/health\/?p=695"},"modified":"2021-10-22T07:03:44","modified_gmt":"2021-10-22T07:03:44","slug":"get-the-data-how-long-can-you-expect-to-wait-at-ae-in-the-west-midlands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/health\/2013\/01\/25\/get-the-data-how-long-can-you-expect-to-wait-at-ae-in-the-west-midlands\/","title":{"rendered":"Get the data: How long can you expect to wait at A&E in the West Midlands?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A longer version of this post can be read in today’s Birmingham Mail<\/a>. You can find out how to do the same report in your own area here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

If you’re going to have to go to an A&E department in the West Midlands, don’t turn up at 1am – you can expect a long wait.<\/p>\n

That’s according to NHS figures which identify that time as being the worst for long waits across the region<\/strong>: the average patient arriving between one and two o’clock in the morning waits for almost three hours.<\/p>\n

The most recent figures, for 2010\/11, are published on the Hospital Episode Statistics site, HESonline<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They\u00a0show that the worst time and place for impatient patients\u00a0across the West Midlands\u00a0Strategic Health Authority\u00a0was\u00a0Mid Staffordshire<\/strong> between 4am and 5am, where the average<\/em> patient waited over three and a half hours – not far off the four-hour limit on waiting times which was lifted in April 2011.<\/p>\n

Patients could have driven<\/em> to another hospital and still be seen sooner: in neighbouring South Staffordshire, for example, the highest average wait, at midday, was only 44 minutes.<\/p>\n

Across the region a quarter of hospital trusts had average waiting times of over three hours at the worst times – generally the hours after midnight.<\/p>\n

The best and worst times to arrive in A&E are shown in the table below:<\/p>\n