There has been a fall in visitors to the county's under-pressure A&E departments
Fewer patients visited A&E in the county last month – and attendances were lower than over the same period last year, figures have revealed.
NHS England figures show 11,038 patients visited A&E at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust – which manages both Royal Shrewsbury and Princess Royal Hospital in Telford – in January.
That was a drop of 18 per cent on the 13,483 visits recorded during December, and four per cent lower than the 11,525 patients seen in January 2022.
Health think tank, the King's Fund, said it has been a tough start to the year for the NHS, and current figures show services "are not out of the woods yet".
Danielle Jefferies, policy analyst, said: "The unfortunate reality is that the road to recovery for the health and care system is long, with growing financial pressures, staffing shortages, and an NHS in crisis, all amounting to waiting lists being miles off where they should be under national targets."
The figures show attendances were above the levels seen two years ago – in January 2021, there were 7,813 visits to A&E departments run by Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital.
The majority of attendances last month were via major A&E departments – those with full resuscitation equipment and 24-hour consultant-led care – while 18 per cent were via minor injury units.
The figures also show that 55 per cent of arrivals were seen within four hours, against an NHS target of 95 per cent, although the figure was an improvement on December.
In December only 44.7 per cent of A&E patients at the hospitals were admitted, transferred or discharged within the government target of four hours.
Across the country only Wye Valley NHS Trust with 44.3 per cent, Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust with 42.6 per cent, and Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust with 39.6 per cent, recorded worse performances on the target.
For January 1,221 patients waited longer than four hours for treatment following a decision to admit – 11 per cent of patients, while 629 were delayed by more than 12 hours.
Across England, A&E departments received two million visits last month.
That was a decrease of 14 per cent compared to December, but five per cent more than the 1.9 million seen during January 2022.
Jessica Morris, fellow at the Nuffield Trust, said: "January saw a welcome improvement in A&E and ambulance waiting times, but this reflects just how difficult December was for health and care services rather than a more significant bounce-back in NHS performance.
"Urgent and emergency care was hit at all sides by the early and harsh flu season, ongoing Covid pressures, cold weather and industrial action.
"It is good to see things moving in the right direction again, but we aren’t through winter yet and we should not underestimate how much pressure NHS staff remain under."
NHS England’s national medical director Professor Sir Stephen Powis said: "Today’s figures show that despite ongoing pressures across the health service, including industrial action, NHS staff are continuing to work flat out to deliver the best care for patients, with ambulance response times improving last month as the NHS continued to progress on its winter plan."
