Accident and Emergency Departments: Standards
(asked on 13th March 2026) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to Answer of 9 March 2026 to Question 115668, what estimate he has made of the number of additional patients who will need to be treated within four hours in order to meet his target.
NHS England publishes data on the number of patients admitted, transferred, or discharged within four hours in accident and emergency (A&E) departments on a monthly basis. The information is available at the following link:
March 2026 data will be published in April. However, in March 2025, there were 2.4 million total A&E attendances, and four hour performance was 75%. In order to meet 78% in March 2025, approximately 72,000 additional patients would have needed to wait less than four hours from arrival to admission, transfer, or discharge.
The Government recognises that urgent and emergency care performance has fallen short in recent years.
Our Urgent and Emergency Care Plan for 2025/26 sets out clear actions to deliver improvements this winter and beyond. We are aiming for 78% of patients to be seen in in four hours this year, meaning over 800,000 people will receive more timely care.
We are investing £250 million into expanding same day and urgent care services, helping avoid unnecessary admissions to hospital and supporting faster diagnosis, treatment, and discharge for patients.