Casualty units suffer ‘Monday morning feeling’ as numbers of patients double

They show hospitals in England typically deal with about 4,000 more cases per hour between 10am and noon on Mondays than average.

The huge peak comes in figures which show 17.6 million people went to A&E, walk-in centres and minor injury treatment centres in 2011-12 – a surge of nearly nine per cent on the previous year.

In Yorkshire, the rise was significantly less with 1.7m seeking emergency care, up less than four per cent.

The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust was the busiest in the region, with its three units in Pontefract, Dewsbury and Wakefield seeing 213,000 patients. Under controversial proposals to reconfigure services in the area, both Pontefract and Dewsbury would no longer treat patients likely to need emergency admission for care.

Harrogate’s A&E was the least busy seeing 46,000 people, Airedale Hospital staff saw 54,000 patients, and Scarborough’s hospital dealt with 56,000.

More people sought emergency or urgent treatment in Sheffield on Mondays than in other parts of Yorkshire, with the fewest in Bradford.

Mark Newbold, chairman of the NHS Confederation’s Hospitals Forum, said: “We know demand for urgent and emergency care services is rising, year on year, but a two-fold increase in A&E attendance on a Monday morning is a clear sign of a system not working at its best.

“Significant and unnecessary variations in pressure on one part of the health system are felt right through the NHS. All parts of the service feel the shock waves.

“We must reshape how all parts of the NHS respond to urgent or unplanned demands on services if we are to deliver the best care, improve clinical outcomes and, ultimately, save more lives.

“No change is not an option, but it is crucial that patients and the public understand why and how changes to service can improve their healthcare and health service.”