A SOUTHAMPTON hospital's failure to meet patient waiting times at its emergency department has been labelled 'dosastrous'.

New figures revealed a fifth of patients at Southampton General Hospital A&E are not being seen within the four-hour target.

Waiting times at A&E in Southampton General Hospital have plummeted well below Government standards over the festive period, with less than 80 per cent of patients being seen within four hours.

Figures released by NHS England revealed that University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the General, failed to meet the target of seeing 95 per cent of patients within the set time limit.

Patients in Winchester also faced longer delays as the Royal Hampshire County Hospital struggled to deal with a 15 per cent rise in emergency cases last week.

For the week ending December 28, just 79.1 per cent of the 2,022 patients who attended Southampton’s A&E were dealt with within four hours.

The previous week 83.1 per cent of the 2,134 patients admitted to the department were seen within the limit.

It comes as the trust saw a six per cent rise in emergency admissions compared to the same period last year.

Hospital bosses said that these are “extreme circumstances” but have reassured staff and patients that they are “in control”.

In a letter to staff, Caroline Marshall, chief operating officer, confirmed that the hospital remained on black alert but had not been forced to declare a major internal incident like many other hospitals across the country.

She said: “Staff have been working in different ways to manage this extreme situation and I am very grateful for all the flexibility shown.”

Daily Echo:

Caroline Marshall

She added that most beds closed due to norovirus had reopened and they were managing a backlog of patients in need of social or nursing care, which was “exacerbated” by a reduction in community care over the festive season.

In Winchester similar pressures saw the emergency department fail to hit the 95 per cent target for the first time this year as unplanned emergency care soared by 11 per cent during the Christmas week and 15 per cent the week after.

Figures for the Royal Hampshire County Hospital showed that 89.8 per cent of patients were seen within four hours in the week ending December 28. This fell to 83.6 per cent at the end of last week.

Donna Green, deputy chief executive at Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital, said that feedback from patients remains positive.

Southampton Itchen MP John Denham has branded the current situation as “disastrous” and urged those running health and social care services in the city to start working together to help ease the pressures facing hard-working A&E staff.

As well as an “injection” of money into the NHS, Mr Denham has called for a radical change in the way GP practices work, to take pressure off A&E and to bring health services and social care together.

Daily Echo: Itchen MP John Denham

John Denham

He said: “I think this is a pretty disastrous situation and it is a symptom of the pressures being felt right across the health service. The system as a whole is creaking very badly.”

This latest struggle comes less than two years after hospital bosses were so concerned about the inability to meet A&E targets they called in a special NHS taskforce that made 25 recommendations to make the system more “robust”.

Mr Denham believes that all those recommendations are in place but added: “If this continues it might be worth getting those people back in again but I strongly suspect most of the issues are related to overall pressures on the health service rather than the way A&E is managed.”

Royston Smith, leader of the opposition at Southampton City Council, said: “Hospital bosses need to look where they can better push resources to help A&E and the public should try to be more informed and use other NHS services.”

Daily Echo: Southampton City Council leader Royston Smith and HMS Astute

Royston Smith